Craig Goodworth, Select Artifacts (box and skulls), 2014
POKER AT THE Y-KNOT BAR IN OMAHA
With a beautiful dancer who called herself
Madame Chiang Kai-shek I lost
She bet me twenty five dollars
I could not chug
A half pint of crème de menthe She lost
Somewhere through icy Omaha
After that New Year’s Eve
It took me three days to find
My father’s new Buick I lost
After his funeral six months later
I looked up at the blue sky and will
Always remember him saying to me
I am not enjoying any of this at all
He should have slapped me
He should have slapped me many times Hard
________________________
John McKernan