Knotweed
Likewise pokeweed, a lookalike
that needs cooking thrice
and kneading in-between
each boiling, unlike knotweed
eaten sugared in a mash
or pickled to sour lemony tang.
Nothing alike, yet all talk
of truth speaks always of lies.
Still skillet hot we tossed
back poke sallet’s pot likker
from a teacup over the stove,
like the battery acid brew
dripped from coil to jar
back in the barn—hoo-hah!
That same hoarse prayer,
wiping our eyes’ glad gushes.
Numb lips, tingling tongue
made old ones think poke tonic
killed itchy worms they got
trekking unshod in critter-shit,
saving their store shoes
for Sundays. Only looks alike
in a blur from a dusty truck
window. Our Constitution
got writ in pokeberry juice,
but these pulpy bamboo
masses messing up city lots
don’t even hide boys anymore
who back in the day needed
a secret circle of blue sky above,
hunkered inside a pungent cave
to peruse bare-naked ladies
in magazines and cough
over purse-stolen cigarettes.
that needs cooking thrice
and kneading in-between
each boiling, unlike knotweed
eaten sugared in a mash
or pickled to sour lemony tang.
Nothing alike, yet all talk
of truth speaks always of lies.
Still skillet hot we tossed
back poke sallet’s pot likker
from a teacup over the stove,
like the battery acid brew
dripped from coil to jar
back in the barn—hoo-hah!
That same hoarse prayer,
wiping our eyes’ glad gushes.
Numb lips, tingling tongue
made old ones think poke tonic
killed itchy worms they got
trekking unshod in critter-shit,
saving their store shoes
for Sundays. Only looks alike
in a blur from a dusty truck
window. Our Constitution
got writ in pokeberry juice,
but these pulpy bamboo
masses messing up city lots
don’t even hide boys anymore
who back in the day needed
a secret circle of blue sky above,
hunkered inside a pungent cave
to peruse bare-naked ladies
in magazines and cough
over purse-stolen cigarettes.
