Prairie Rose
Inside my dream the towns fall by us one by one:
Laredo, Rocky-Neck and Sprute.
I am asleep beneath the jury-rigged tarpaulin
in the night-cot of your cousin's mobile home,
the air thick as corn soup.
The tire-noise slackens as we pull in at
a drowsy joint called Maria-Eleana’s.
Her jukebox sings dobro and Hank
and an outfit called The Tuscaloosa Boys.
The intricate needlework on your boots
twinkles like pin-pricks in black card
and the liquefaction
of your denim bolero
as it sidles to a blue-grass waltz
hits me over heart like a high calibre round.
'Wake up, wake up,' you shook me,
'there's a tornado headed this way.'
And I saw that Satan's index finger
doodle devastation along the highway.
'Kansas this aint, Rose.' I explained,
'and there's no way home.'
'But we are home.'
Laredo, Rocky-Neck and Sprute.
I am asleep beneath the jury-rigged tarpaulin
in the night-cot of your cousin's mobile home,
the air thick as corn soup.
The tire-noise slackens as we pull in at
a drowsy joint called Maria-Eleana’s.
Her jukebox sings dobro and Hank
and an outfit called The Tuscaloosa Boys.
The intricate needlework on your boots
twinkles like pin-pricks in black card
and the liquefaction
of your denim bolero
as it sidles to a blue-grass waltz
hits me over heart like a high calibre round.
'Wake up, wake up,' you shook me,
'there's a tornado headed this way.'
And I saw that Satan's index finger
doodle devastation along the highway.
'Kansas this aint, Rose.' I explained,
'and there's no way home.'
'But we are home.'
Poetrymagazines note: John Stammers’ first collection, Panoramic Lounge-bar (Picador 2001), won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2001. His second collection, Stolen Love Behaviour, was published by Picador in February 2005.
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