Kesey 1

Airports

a disheveled middle aged white couple

the stubbly face of the man

the million times bleached hair and too much eyeliner of the woman

but they were both wearing head to toe purple and white tie dye outfits

and bright white sneakers

the little girl in the bathroom with a babydoll in her drawstring backpack

just the head sticking out with the drawstrings cinched around the baby doll’s neck

hanging ridiculously off the little girls back

almost as big as her

if that were a real baby how scary

it’s big head threatening to be whacked by something or fall to the floor

the beautiful woman with the tiny baby girl

sitting on the floor near the window

telling her baby fiercely no! stop that! no!

when she cries

you're being a brat, you know better than this!

she’s in the seat in front of me on the plane

cursing and nursing

Las Cruces

sitting in grandma's back yard in the morning

after the rain the air smells like tea

the Russian sage with its purple blossoms made into a tincture

the wind chimes ring out holy

reflecting in the shiny puddles in the clean flat cement of the patio

as  I help her prune and trellis her roses

she tells me about stealing vats of blood 

from the hospital for her plants

and she had the biggest roses in town

the big man who everyone was scared of in solitary
so they didn't give him his meds

she had his cell cleaned and helped get what he needed

till he was well enough to stand in the med line with everyone else

then she went away for a couple weeks on vacation 
and nobody helped him get his meds
he fell into disrepair
withdrawing into himself 
even more than before my grandma met him

the man who was stabbed in the pen 
and died because he was too skinny

they hit the vena kava by mistake

the Downs race track where grandpa worked

he was in coaching jockeys, gambling, and drug dealing

being from somewhere

what’s that mean?

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