- Keith Banner
Salem Light 100s
so there was this
woman i worked with
at kentucky fried chicken
in anderson, in
when i was 16
1981
boy was i
fucking miserable
this woman was
named Patsy Taylor Vaught
she had the shiniest
platinum blonde hair
face made
up like she was always going
to a party in 1964
that lana turner hair
imitation of life all the way
and i think she told me
her ex-husband tried to kill her
with an ax
or maybe he tried to kill someone
else
who knows?
i mean does it really matter anyway?
but god
did i want to be patsy's friend
she was pure style
and grit
4 kids
all of them delinquents
her daughter would call
the kfc screaming
and patsy would give me the phone
and i would listen to
her daughter's foul mouth until she stopped
and I'd say let me get your mom
she lived in a big old decrepit house
a mansion in my mind
the kids destroyed parts of it
2 hyperactive sons, twins, with baseball bats etc
patsy and me would have really
long conversations about
her life
while putting cole slaw into little
styrofoam containers
she'd let me bum a few of her salem light
100s
every shift
i guess she was like
a replacement mom
she was like
this star to me
i don't know
i thought about her today no real reason, and of
course googled that shit
she died
in 2006
i remember her favorite song
was by that silver-haired devil named
charlie rich
and her car
damn
it was a maroon monte carlo
the size of a float
in a parade she was always
in, some sad glamorous
parade
celebrating
ax-murderers
