Scared Violent Like Horses by John McCarthy

Author:John McCarthy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Milkweed Editions
Published: 2019-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

THE DECAPITATION OF PAUL BUNYAN

After the 2006 tornado in Sangamon County

The sky is still gnarled-iron gray from the tornado that hit

four days ago. Shade trees leak rain. The Best Buy sign

is shaped like Pennsylvania in its blown out black-wire frame.

Potholes fill with water grizzled silver like detached hubcaps.

Mini-vans, dented as the Diet Coke can my father crushes,

glint in the parking lot, and I am driving my father

to buy new shoes on the west side after bailing him out

from the drunk tank. I want to be anywhere but Illinois

next to this bald man sucking his fingernails,

worried about the holes in his heels. We don’t know

each other. Father and son—call us shadows. Call us

storm-split trees. Call us every split husk folded open

to the light breaking through. When I check the turn lane

our eyes lock like we’re strangers waiting in a long line.

At a red light, a twenty-foot statue of Paul Bunyan

towers headless, advertising Lauterbach Tires

like an ancient wonder of a once great city. One palm turns

upward, the other holds a nickel of sky where an ax handle

used to be. The statue’s red flannel collar is like a grin

with no face. When the light changes, I drive on.

My father’s presence is a fitful, inconstant wind.

He says, Turn here. Gutters fill with wet sticks, and I know

he feels empty-handed, like there’s no head on his shoulders.

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