Category: Flavor Town USA

they was sittin round the fireplace sippin tea & eatin fruitcake on crushed velvet divans with bronze claw feet on oriental rugs, when the maid walked in with a silver tray weighed down with a heaping mound of sugar cubes. the headmaster of the school, seated between the principals, waved her hand in the maid’s…

on the island of if,the shrimpboat captain dreams of geckosclimbing up cave walls,catching them & setting them free. when he wakes up in the middle of the night,& stares out into a sea of dwarf foxes on the dock,their eyes glowing from the light of his lantern,he climbs back into his bunk and asks himself,how to…

we was sittin along the bywater drinkin white wine spritzers,when a dead whale washed up on the shore all bloated & swollen. so we carried our glasses down to where the sand met the shore& poked the mammal with a stick, till water shot out of the blowhole into our faces,& anchovies slid out of…

follow the bagpipes into the animal garden,where the poet sharpens his pencils& scratches flea dog with a fire poker,where the bass fiddle player stokes his flames with a horsehair bow,where, in the salvage yard, the junkman turns over hubcaps for frogs & asks: ya wanna frolic in the hedges?ya wanna tickle the keys of an organ with…

down on the banks of the Ocmulgee River,we ride that coal train to the steps of the cemetery,where the lowcountry chef soaks red beans in well water& grinds down brown rice to flour, sayin, i crack an egg open on the spring equinox, slice offa piece of salami & squeak. holdin a jar of honeysuckle…

when i carried my fiddle down to the river of silver,i paddled upstream through currents of molassestill i heard the bellows of a bandoneonfill up with the fog & the dew,then push out steam. so i slipknot rope round rusty iron cleat& followed the trill of that squeezeboxthrough the vines & the reedstill a boat…