Friday, November 22, 2024

winfield (1989)

  

under towering elms knuckling the autumn mud we likewise pitched our ams

to the spoonfed stars periwinkling migrant in clear railroad sky, winfield

kansas, ragu phil and his alaskan sweetie passed out on a

hudson bay blankie by the campfire, nearby river swelling towards us

like a poaching beerbelly, whoopshollers& pickup trucks with

splintery side rails lurch over puddleruts and pedestrians, longbearded men falter

in the underbrush disturbing crickets gospel screetching, pulling

drunkenly on suspenders attached to the local courthouse kerosene lanterns

illuminate the hoedown of insects zeroing in on the sweaty

thighs of farmgirls, songs of heaven on earth, burps and marshmallow sacrifices,

harmonies of consensus& mister learned offers this----hey d'yall notice

the scenery's fineprint, no foreigners allowed? here in the groined heart of america

winfield kansas where the common sin is silence

glare from the bandstands rocking with standup bass while country women

twirl skirts and lyrical lassos and a freight train is passing

aways to the north, campsite of stillwater okies centered around a dug-earth firepit

where massive logs turn solid energy& radiate glowing fiendlike

on many probable characters streamline campers pulse and bob with

mating attempts the occasion rises only once a year, dirty blankets stretch under

people worn thin by the day, twelve thousand hootin kneeslappin broadbrimmed

goodole boys waiting in line fer the portapotty twelve thousand goodole girls

chickenstomp their dreams away of the vogue college scene

twelve thousand wicked younguns tell their best jokes in the pup tents

twelve thousand honkies toot their anglosaxonphones spending

a weekend amongst their own while a few of us dirthippy foreigners show them

up at their own, not so exclusive, game



 


1989, Winfield Kansas bluegrass festival


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