Hometown, Louisiana: Men

 

 

With wild eyes on the Spanish jail, the wino said, “At one time

they hung folks there,” and he pointed a claw and spat one time.

 

Fall Saturdays, they gather to lament the loss, dunk donuts

in chicory coffee, remember taking State that one time.

 

On Blankenship the kids still sprint past old man Hebert’s place;

according to legend he screwed a feral cat one time.

 

A dim and distant memory: Little League, opening day,

the mayor recited “Casey at the Bat” one time.

 

Glued to a chair at Paul’s Café, an engraved brass plate

coaxes diners to Sit where Elvis sat one time.  

 

That brown three-bedroom down from the Catholic Church

surrounded by pines—a family lived there at one time.

 

 

Brent Newsom’sdebut poetry collection, Love’s Labors, will be published in spring 2015 by CavanKerry Press. Hispoems have appeared in The Southern Review, The Hopkins Review, Birmingham Poetry Review, PANK, Cave Wall, and other journals. A Louisiana native, he earned a PhD in English from Texas Tech University, where he held editorial posts with 32 Poems and Iron Horse Literary Review. He is currently Assistant Professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University.