ANNE BABSON





AFTER THE PARADES


Hitching back from Mardi Gras to Tulsa,
Dalton ditched the beads in a rest stop trash can.
Henry, still dressed as a mad monk, nodded, understanding.
Billy Bob, mustard in his ZZ Top beard, asked why.
"I was fixin' to DIY a macrame for my mee-maw with those!"

Dalton squatted against the bark of a birch, watching a wood duck
Just past the swamps of Manchac. "Don't you get it?
The beads glitter but already clog up landfill! All this wilderness —
Next time we pass here, it'll lie in lake water,
And you and I, we'll be in a boat drifting nowhere."






AUTOCORRECT: TWO