Another Day in Redneck Heaven

by Sam Karas

Photo Art by Asheley Baker

for Emily & John

I got off the river

& everything was f—ed.

There were ropes strung

across the canyons & mounds

of clothes on the beaches.

I found myself deep in

country so strange I didn’t

know the names of

the animals howling

around me. Karaoke night

at La Kiva she tripped

& cracked her face

on that boat. Devo said

it was the meatiest flap

he’d ever seen. For awhile

it hurt to laugh. Still she was

the most beautiful light this side

of sunrise. My truck was making

the sound of an animal in pain.

John sunk his whole arm

under the hood & pulled out

a catfish gasping for home.

We ate good for days. That’s what

I loved about them. How the river

would bend to meet them.

Back

in another life things were

getting western at Fiesta Heights.

Do you remember those brothers

he used to drink with, the ones

who got disappeared? Aliens,

they said. Weren’t never the same after that. One got caught on the bad road from nowhere with a horse trailer full of cocaine. One got caught climbing

out of Spirit Eye with an armful of bones. He dug a hole &

planted them. Said someday that dog’ll hunt. Said something else in the paper, I don’t remember. What good is all this remembering when I don’t even know

where you are. I’m sitting in my boat in the front yard

wondering. If where you are the water is clear. If there’s shade from a cottonwood tree

& little pink flowers sprouting out of the rocks. If there is still some weed left in the bottom

of that bag. If she’s laughing again & if you are loving her

enough.