Cadillac
Oklahoma Rt. 66
© C.C. Brooks

ROSE

Silver hair fanned over black mulch
Under a rose bush
Just off the front porch
He was shirtless and skinny-fat
With a wrinkled tattoo on each pale shoulder -
USMC Devil Dog
And the name Rose stitched in green
Under a single red rose
His blue eyes wide open to the simmering sun

With a sweep of one hand I closed them
Like I’d seen in a movie
It was sad but then again
Each day since Vietnam
Must have been a blessing

And then a final sip of black coffee
Falling over the morning paper
Into the pink light
Of one last sunrise




"Promote Gospel Singing"
Oklahoma Rt. 66
© C.C. Brooks

“Poetry says things that nothing else can.  It snares the edges of the unspeakable.  It grazes dreams.  It stands with feet in several worlds.  It says two or three things at once, and then denies them all in favor of silence.”

            -James Tate, from the introduction to James Welch’s Riding the Earthboy 40

Cadillac
Oklahoma Rt. 66
© C.C. Brooks




Cadillac
Oklahoma Rt. 66
© C.C. Brooks

Rt. 66
Chandler, Oklahoma
© C.C. Brooks