Joe R. Lansdale is our December 2009 Special Guest Poet

You can visit Joe at: http://www.joerlansdale.com/

ONE MAN WITH A RIFLE

One man, unfulfilled, with a rifle.
Up high with his desire and his aim.
Up there with all he never was
But with all he is about to be.
Waiting on an open car to drive by.
One man, with a rifle.

One shot.
Two shots.
A man who has dipped his stick in Marilyn.
A man who has looked dictators in the eye,
and saw them flinch.
A man whose wife is the red hot apple of all eyes.
That man.
His head blooms pink.
His skull folds open like a blossoming flower.

His wife, dressed in pink to match his wound,
chases a piece of his head across the car.
Catching it, she says: Will this help?

The sky yawns.
Something that mattered seeps away.
Because of one man.
With a rifle.
Up high.
Now fulfilled.

WHERE THE BIG ONE FELL

Some might hear sounds and think of tumble weeds
Others, desiccated hearts and old dried heads
Empty carcasses where worms gather,
and wind blows through open mouths,
or whistles through dew-moist nose holes and empty eye-sockets
Such is the wind
The dirt
The dead
Out there in the wasteland where the big one fell

THE GOOD DAYS DON’T COME BACK

Some might wish for the old days, but the old days are gone.
Some might wish for better days, but there are none ahead.
Some might hope things change, and they will, but not for the better.
The mind wants different and life eternal.

However, only time marches on, forever young, gloating over our bones.
So hold your nose and drive real fast.
You’ll pass them by, the long dead and the recent dead.
But others wait.
On down the line, all the bones just your size.

HUG UP THE HUNTER

Hug up the hunter.
He’s killed something sweet to eat.
Cook it up.
Eat it up.
Throw out the bassinet.

Joe R. Lansdale is the author of over thirty novels, twenty short story collections, screenplays, comic scripts, essays and non-fiction. His most recent novel is Vanilla Ride from Knopf, part of his Hap and Leonard series. Others in the series are currently being reprinted by Vintage Books. Joe R. Lansdale's novella, Bubba Ho-Tep, was the inspiration for Don Coscarelli's cult classic, starring Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis.

Vanilla Ride can be found at:

Bubba Ho-Tep can be found at: