2050. CHICKEN WITHOUT A HEAD

CHICKEN WITHOUT A HEAD
Or like at least the farmers would say -
'running around like a chicken with its head
cut off'...I heard that stuff a million times; never
did want to visualize that, or ever see it happen.

Like blood and thunder, far enough away is

close enough for me. I always understood - on

the other hand - happenstance to be something

that could just occur, could just hit one when

one was not even thinking about it. Like a meteor

from the Heavens, one that takes out a town,

or a ballfield full of people. Smish-smash-splatter.

-

I grew up under the eaves of a garage, watching

big men argue while fixing cars. Drinking hard

whiskey from bottles in their hands, while the

other held a wrench - sometimes too with women

at their sides, they'd be feeling this or squeezing that,

and it had little to do with cars. But things got

fixed, all the time, nonetheless. One or twice, in fact,

I heard them say even LulaMae 'got fixed.' No matter.

I was just a country boy, and that's the I learned how

you learn. Like that chicken, running around without

a head - you never keep what you don't first earn .