Last Call
Authors: David Lee
Day's Work,
1990
Paragonah Canyon,
1990
My Town,
1995
Covenants
(with William Kloefkorn), 1996
Wayburne Pig,
1997
The Fish,
1997
A Legacy of Shadow: Selected Poems,
1999
News from Down to the Café: New Poems,
1999
Incident at Thompson Slough,
2002
So Quietly the Earth,
2004
In a House Made of Time
(with William Kloefkorn), 2010
Stone Wind Water,
2011
Texas Wild Flowers,
2011
Moments of Delicate Balance
(with William Kloefkorn), 2011
Last Call
© 2014
by David Lee
Cover: Judge Roy Bean's Jersey Lilly Bar. Photograph by Jan Lee.
Author photography by Jan Lee and Shae Van Wagoner.
ISBN: 978-1-60940-375-1 (paperback original)
E-books:
ePub: 978-1-60940-376-8
Mobipocket/Kindle: 978-1-60940-377-5
Library PDF: 978-1-60940-378-2
Wings Press
627 E. Guenther
San Antonio, Texas 78210
Phone/fax: (210) 271-7805
On-line catalogue and ordering:
Wings Press books are distributed to the trade by Independent Publishers Group
Cataloging In Publication:
Lee, David, 1944 August 13â
[Poems. Selections]
Last call : new poems / David Lee.
     pages cm
“Wings Press books are distributed to the trade by Independent Publishers Group”--T.p. verso.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-60940-375-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-60940-376-8 (ePub ebook) -- ISBN 978-1-60940-377-5 (Mobipocket ebook) -- ISBN 978-
1-60940-378-2 (pdf)
I. Title.
PS3562.E338A6 2014
811'.54--dc23
2013043117
The Monument to the South Plains
E. U. Washburn's Story: Uncle Abe
Overheard Conversation Between Billy Klogphorne and his son William
At the Sign of the Flying Red Horse
Driving Solo: Clovis Rants: A Monologue in Five Acts with Intermission
Aftermath Evaluation from a Pickup Window
Lost in Translation: a monologue from the pickup cab
Prelude to the World's Greatest Meatloaf Sandwich
Lake Hills, Texas: A Tale of Rapunzel's Lover
Zen and the Art of German Engineering
The Committee to Review and Revise The Board of Education Mission Statement
Elder Johnny Bert Ezell's Attempt to Re-resign as the Young Adult Men's Sunday School Teacher
From the Pickup Cab on the Back Road to Adolph's
Idyll: Thursday night, Adolph's, Lake Hills, Texas
John Sims' Story: The Oil Well Fire
For Eloise and Jan
who kept us for the most part on the high road
Our revels now are ended.
âProspero
The Tempest,
IV, i
Lake Hills, Texas
Rena working the bar past John Sims
with the coffee pot asked
Yall boys going
to the School Board Meeting tonight?
Clovis said I don't imagine I will
but Billy has to go
since he's nominated
to be on a hoity toity committee
Billy said
I doubt I'll be there either
Rena said What committee
and what's hoity toity?
Billy said Part A is meaningless
and as for Part B
according to the Oxford English Dictionary
hoity toity in the denotative sense
comes directly down to la dee fucking dah
It says that in the dictionary?
Clovis said If Billy said it is
it's exactly verbatim
which to him means
that's the gist of it
Billy said Ledbitter
you don't know Jack Shit
That shows what you know
I might have known him once
Oh bull said Billy
you rattle on as much
as that damned old Dodge pickup of yours
you old high pockets
Rena said Now you boys
yall just straighten up and act respectable
this is a high class joint
and it's too early for yall arguing
when real people mostly can't even understand
what you two ex-professors are saying
Clovis said As a matter of fact
I remember it all now and I believe I did
I think he might have lived
in Tahoka a while back
and I could have met him there
Yeah and in what part of a Chaucerian pig's anatomy
do you think we'll believe that? said Billy
Would yall like a bump on your coffee?
Naw we better get going
make hay while the sun's shining said Billy
Rats to kill said Clovis
What yall got planned? said Rena
Dunno yet said Clovis
haven't had time to think about it so far
Got to see what the weather's going to do said Billy
Looks to be a purdy one
Well I hope so said Billy
If it gets hot we can sit on the porch
and shade bake, tell some lies
Might haul some garbage
Mebbe go down and count Delphin's three cows said Clovis
You can write about it again
now that you know for sure how many there are
Billy said See what I mean?
Ledbitter, you never did know Jack Shit
That's right
I probably wouldn't recognize him
if I was sitting right beside him
would I?
I bet yall find something interesting
at least to talk about said Rena
Let's go Klogphorne
we're burning up sunshine
Yep said Billy up and at'm
Bye yall
Yes'm
Bye Miss Rena
See yall tomorrow morning
Bright and early said Billy
unless we decide to hold the School Board Meeting here tonight
then we'll be back with the libationous expeditionary force
I imagine that's a fact said Rena
I'll be looking for you either way
either time
you boys be good now
Yes'm Miss Rena
unless we get lucky
Will you come on Clovis my godamitey
I've been standing here half the morning
waiting on you already
You just button it up Buffalo Billy Bob Klepfrog
I told you I'm coming
save your breath to cool your mush
Mr In a Big Hurry
Well you're sure not
Bye, see you later, said John
See yall tonight I'm betting
From what I've heard
you pretty much only bet on sure things
so we'll probably be here
I spect that's right said John
I'll be here awaiting
¡Contempla!
âJuan Bautista, who, folk legend tells us, lost his mind over a woman's footprints in the dust somewhere east of Pecos
1
Onella Penny smoked a pipe
P. A. tobacco you could smell
two yards over
nobody ever mentioned
outside our neighborhood
but what finally made her famous
after the big stomp
was when we noticed
how she walked so hard
for a woman who wasn't
to speak of necessarily
fleshy
in a dry season
her steps wove dust
cyclone children on the way
to the trash barrel or clothes line
past her ankles, swirls
almost to her knees
so that
one August morning
Billy Klogphorne and Clovis Ledbitter
perched on the back porch furniture
morning coffeeing in short sleeved shirts
saw her emerge like Venus
in an ocean of heat waves
with a kitchen trash
bucket
footstep whirlwinds
all around her back yard, in immaculate Texanese
Clovis said One them air dust devils
gets under her housecoat
up her nightgown arising
she'll lift herself
like a full grown female angel
right off the ground
I bet
she
looked smartly their way
so Billy couldn't laugh or take the wager
leaned over and pretended
something in his coffeecup
needed to be looked at
anything else right then
was not going to be worth the chance
2
Then the day Marvin Penny
came outside
looking like second place
in a two entrant
world champion fist whipping
she became
legend
neither one surprised
after they heard the scream
through the housewalls across the yard
to the back porch PBR libations
when she learned the rumor
of his gallavantation with Kim Pierce
Billy in perfect Tejano splendor said
               Clovis
that isn't no knucklebumps on his head
you get up and look close
I'll put two dollars
yougn see a clear footprint
from his busted lip
up between and past
that eye'll be swolt black tomorrow
with a bloody nose in the middle
Clovis said No bet
that looks to be a fact
3
When Cephas Bilberry heard
at the Dew Drop Inn that night
he said Well I hope Marvin he learnt
a lesson from it either way
whatever it was needing
such immediate education
Billy said I imagine he did
Cephas said That being what?
Billy said Next time
he gets knocked on his ass
he'll make sure he falls face down