Canary Collusion
It was after Mom’s dad passed her mom bought canaries.
Grams felt life less lonely, I think, with their singing,
and gave her idea that flying the coop to
live close to my mom could be Southland for grey birds!
Gram’s love’s stroke unexpected (he died in mid-sixties);
Today seems quite young to be housewife left winging
her way to new home. Kids in Woodward? (1) Gold grew two,
Mom’s brood and her brother’s brood, fledglings warmed innards!
My folks built a new home for her, right back of our house,
and yard had a garden with no trees to shade it,
sweet melons that bled, and tomatoes (stretched softballs).
And gold too were biscuits Grams baked for our dinners!
Plains folk quail at Thanksgiving and rarely enjoy grouse
or grousers that much, though their plates boast a surfeit
they’ve worked for, don’t shoot birds that run or trust windfalls!
It’s folks who will stay and work late plains call winners.
There’s collusion these days, watch Herr Trump stroke the Russians,
see Trump not pay taxes, pay off whores he’s ducking,
and huge corporations (for raping the planet)
will cede Trump free rein! “Guys, just keep me in power!”
But the caged birds of COVID now color discussions!
They die with our parents, our children! Hear sucking?
That’s Trump at his best as he deep throats a bare hit!
Please pardon! Methinks the whole world needs a shower!
Brian Johnston
July 8th in 2020
Poet’s Notes:
(1)Woodward, OK, was a small town in Northwestern Oklahoma
that I had the great good fortune to grow up in and escape alive.
Several of my close friends from there were not as fortunate, and
suffered more damage! No blacks were allowed to live in city limits
on either side of the track! There was a “shoeshine boy,” but he
had to leave town before sunset and lived in the country. Even in
college at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, fraternities
were whites-only. Approved off-campus housing was allowed to
discriminate against blacks. My landlady (in my 4th year) told me
that a ‘black skin’ was the mark of Cain! I still weep for our nation!
Copyright ©
Brian Johnston
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