Far-Fetched by Devin Johnston

Author:Devin Johnston
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780374714086
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

STRANGERS

On an overbooked flight from Houston,

I find my seat beside a woman

in black shades, with the hard-bitten look

that sometimes follows addiction,

nails chewed down to the quick,

talking too loudly into her phone:

Yeah, I got my dad a new amp.

Rocking must run in the family!

As we level off in the tenuous dusk,

she orders a Red Bull and Skyy,

scarfing down her portion of pretzels,

shifting abruptly from side to side

to cross and recross her legs,

swiping through files on her phone.

Meanwhile, I skim an Audubon guide

and pause at the boat-tailed grackle

with its iridescence, yellow eye,

and long, harsh trilling song.

You like that book? she interrupts.

I got some crazy shit to show you.

Here, a silky fantail

from the State Fair of Texas.

Have you ever seen a mule pull?

This team’s dragging five tons.

Oh, that’s me, getting an award.

I’m a doctor, you believe that shit?

In the snapshot, she wears a white lab coat

with a ribbon pinned to her lapel,

her arm around a soldier’s waist

in what looks to be a shopping mall.

I love birds! So check it out:

I raised fuckin’ racing pigeons

with my dad, a top geneticist

at Baylor—total brainiac.

We banded squabs, flew them in batches,

drove them out for training tosses.

This one, with a Belgian pedigree,

came first in the Texas Showdown.

Fuckin’ A, I loved those birds.

On and on, an improbable mix

of tough talk and expertise

that finds no resolution.

But then, consider my own account,

withheld: an invitation

to read my poetry aloud,

tequila and a fine lechón,

a morning free to watch a pair

of caracaras take apart

the carcass of a wild hog

along the Chocolate Bayou.

What would such scraps mean to her?

Even in our final descent

she pushes past my doubt

and reticence, to say,

I started as a dancer,

and now I’m a goddamn doc.

Looking back, it all makes sense!

—the incidents of a life

fanning out in a strange display.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.