Last Call by David Lee Read Free Book Online Page A

nights
    Charles E. Carr, Sr. the Second
    lived in his Barcalounger
    memorizing the schedule
    of every program on Channel 7 and ll
    Ding Dong School with Miss Francis
    Captain Kangaroo soap operas all the days of his life
    Queen for a Day Hopalong Roy Gene Durango Kid
    Cisco and Lone Ranger Howdy Doody
    Liberache and Tennessee Ernie Ford oh my both ways
    Serenaders at 5 Bernie Howell on the Organ at 5:30
    Douglas Edwards Edward R. Murrow See It Now
    Jimmy Issac’s State News and Weather from Lubbock
    Father Knows Alfred Hitchcock Best Loretta Young
    Ed Sullivan Loves Lucy Milton Berle
    Sid Caesar Dizzy Dean Dragnet Gunsmoke
    It’s after eleven o’clock
    will you turn that goddam thing down?
    Yes dear I wished you wouldn’t talk that way
    I’m getting real tired of this I’m warning you
    Yes dear
    his scruff sprouting through
    a peat moss mask of dried pink lotion
    splotches and patches
    in his lap every day, all night
    his Braun Electric Dry Razor
    which during every commercial
    sunrise to midnight, forty consecutive days
    in the wilderness of temptation
    he would lift, hold before his face
    thumb the switch
    after checking that the cord was plugged in correctly
    and listen to its perfectly engineered
    immaculately designed
    happy birthday from your son Charles E. Carr, Jr.
    impeccable German whine

The Second Miracle
    Daryl Glen Strickland
    ten years into his current drunk
    found his way to the monument
    with a Jax beer in one hand
    the remaining three of the six pack
    papersacked in the other
    looked up at the sculpture
    the seeming spiral movement
    the face changing expression
    with the light flow, sift of breeze
    passing through the welded body
    dizzied him
    until he dropped to a knee
    where he remained for a quarter hour supine
    staring upward into the obelisk
    then rose and stumbled to the garbage barrel
    tossed in his open can
    placed the three live soldiers beside the drum
    that night at the Dew Drop Inn
    Bus Pennel mentioned
    the Monument to the South Plains
    Daryl Glen Strickland once again
    wobbled until he had to leave the bar
    go outside for fresh air
    from then on when he came
    to the Dew he drank only R.C. Cola
    he returned again and again
    to view Willy John’s first masterpiece
    sober
    saying any time he thought of drinking
    he pictured it in his mind
    and dizziness poisoned the urge
    said he was pretty sure
    he overheard himself
    praying to it a few times
    until he finally gave it up
    for good
    the men’s glee club at the Dew Drop
    said Poor devil
    he’s cursed with the genius
    caint get it out of his system
    probley rurnt forever
    they said
    That’s too bad
    he was a good old boy
    oncet upon a time

Eloise Ann’s Story: Upon Her Daughter Finding the Shotgunned Bodies of a Sandhill Crane and her Colt in the Grainfield Stubble
    I remember when I was her age
    one of our neighbors shot my puppy
    Daddy said He will pay for that in the hereafter
    down the road from our place
    somebody had painted on a sign
    R EPENT J ESUS IS C OMING S OON T HE E ND IS NEAR
    and I thought then
    no it isn’t
    either it’s already come and gone
    and He went away, left for good
    or it’s too late
    we are all sunsucked dry with meanness
    where a bucket of water on cheatgrass
    wouldn’t pull enough suption
    to let a stem call up spit
    why would He want to come back to this?
    that’s what I wanted to know
    what I had to say about all of it back then
    when I was a child like her wondering
    why somebody would do something like that
    to my puppy dog, to me
    to my whole world and everything
    I’d learned to believe in
    about it all

The Committee to Review and Revise The Board of Education Mission Statement
    This little light of mine
    â€”Vacation Bible School song
    You put me on that committee
    first thing I’ll do is call a vote to disband
    Is it the committee or the people on it?
    It’s about equal, I’d guess
    Is there anything today you detest more than