By: Cameron Crosby

LAWNMOWER MAN

He sits on the throne of his lawnmower

Like it’s a brand new Cadillac

Placing a cigarette between his lips

Turning it on, letting it roar

Smoke billows from his mouth

And the mower,

Barbed wire wraps around his big tanned arms

He cruises over to the side of his trailer

Turns the volume way-the-fuck-up

A cassette tape

‘Appettite for Destruction’

It’s been on repeat for years.

He returns to the lawn, cracks a beer

Trying to smooth out the jitters

From last nights shitty speed

He got from his daughter’s boyfriend.

###

Goose Hunting with Jesus

Standing on the shore

Fixated on open sky with lazy eyes

A dampness of salt water

And beef jerky…

A bang

An echo across the river

A goose falls from the sky

Hitting the ground with a soft thud

The goos flips and turns

Making snow angels in the sand

I pull my dad’s sleeve

Run to the goose

My old man YELLS, “Grab the neck!”

I twirl him around my wrist

I fling him about

Feeling every vertebrae crack

Around my wrist like a watch bracelet

The limp neck hanging in my hand

It’s glossy black eyes.

###

Corn Bred

The truck rammed the fence

Splintering it into toothpicks

Bald tires

Carve through rows of corn.

Ran the scarecrow down.

Left it laying in the soft glow against a bruised moonlight

Its body stitched and stuffed

By a boy and his mother

The volume knob got yanked right

Drowning out the sound of crunching corn.

Pantera –

Dimebag Darrel crackling through speakers

Light guides the truck out of darkness

Back to the well-worn sidewalk

A dead-scarecrow silence

Fumes from the tailpipe

A sleeping town.