- Keith Banner
Those Stories
he chewed tobacco
in his la-z-boy
this bronze spittoon
was on the right hand
side of it
on the floor
he'd pick it up
and spit out brown
juice into it
watching
guiding light
there was a smell
from that spittoon
in the air
not nasty really
kind of
like old pulled weeds
that smell they give off
and him chawing down on that shit
but quietly
horn-rimmed glasses
and gray-green
work clothes
a big wad in his cheek
strange pleasure
and
some nurse crying
on tv
he always told me
about the timbering he did
about driving the
bread
truck in winter before that
always ate 2 breakfasts
one real early like
4 am, cereal and toast, and then
a walk around
the property outside, made-up
chores of some kind
still dark out
and then around 7:30
or 8 a bigger breakfast
eggs country ham
biscuits
the works
her strolling around
the kitchen
making it all
bitching about
this and that
big lady but
somehow
always in motion
always getting something
done
that one story about the bobcat
when he was timbering
and she always
corrected him
just an old tomcat gone
feral
and she was always
talking about how
that little store down in the valley
would never make it
because the owner was so
hateful
as the world turns too
he loved that one
he would spit that
tobacco juice out
hung up on every word and scene
at supper
he'd tell me about how this one doctor
on that show
really was a nice man
but those others ones
weren't -- he saved that one girl's life, he'd say
and she'd be doling out
potato chips
or whatever
never sitting down
pimento-chesse sandwiches
with sliced tomatoes
and she'd say
real mean but kind of sweet
those stories
you love
rotting your brain
don't you?
