#rudysassafras

[rudysassafras]

h a s h e m

i used to be afraid of death

i was an anxious little kid

i'd check my pulse with bated breath

and try to keep it hid

i don't worry anymore

because i know his name

you never speak the name, of course

but you breathe it just the same

-rudysassafras

[sassafrasrecordz]

Rudy Sassafras

Maudie (John Lee Hooker)

“Self parody is the first portent of age”

—Larry McMurtry

[rudysassafras]

M a r i e

I lost the weight I had before I loved you

I lost the man I was before I died

I found the borrowed rib that does predate you

I found the will of life when first you sighed

I fought the urge that daring plagued the pilgrim

I fought against the vicious tides of law

In acquiescence did your passion quell him

The acquiescent lover of your gall.

I’m blind to every neighbor, foe and kinsmen

I’m even blind to sun and star and moon

I’ve only eyes for moments that unfold them

And you’re the only one for whom I croon.

I want your morning dust in rays of sun

To whisper sweet enchantments yet to come.

—rudysassafras

[rudysassafras]

Huckleberry and Bella

rudysassafras

[rudysassafras]

S o n o r a n

Stif’ling soliloquy,

Sapphire serenity;

Sun’s in the sky and there’s

Sand in my shoe.

Plaintive periphery

Pained in profundity;

Prickly pear splinters on

Paths unpursued.

—rudysassafras

[rudysassafras]

Basset Hound, 2012

rudysassafras

[rudysassafras]

D o o m

Six graves dug in the deep backwood

And a silhouette they spied

They ran to hide as best they could

And all the while tried

To reason that it wasn’t him

And then an owl said ‘who?’

They looked up through the mossy limbs

And the breath of death, it blew

All six of them were shrilly started

The blood inside their veins, it darted

“Beware,” he said “you’re now departed.”

—rudysassafras

[rudysassafras]

Birds of a Feather

We used around the fire light

To speak of life into the night

Until the morn’ came into sight

Then bid farewell like birds in flight

And falling on our separate beds

Inside our minds in separate heads

We dreamed of things each of us fed

The tapestry of verbal threads

And waking at the crack of noon

With splitting heads like crescent moons

We ventured out of separate rooms

To separate lives, two crazy loons

—rudysassafras