Larry Houston

the clock is loud
as it ticks in the hall
I notice dust on the tables
and I stopped doing drugs
...

I can't scrub the black
from my heart
Tony can't scrub the black
from his face
...

The front porch stairs were the perfect place to
correct
all the relationship wrongs in the world
that two teen aged brothers
...

Chopping wood in the side yard
The axe has a satisfying thwack as it hits the wood
the logs split and fall to the sides of the fat stump
steam rises from the back of my neck in the cold air
...

I come home from the hospital, an aged old man
In soiled clothes
tubes hanging, like a fat leech,
from my right side
...

You have gone
and the sparrows don't sing from the trees anymore
and a lawnmower starts in the distance
tequila and limes
...

She had scars on her wrist and her arm
And she didn't pull back when I touched them
they were purple and straight
as if done with real purpose,
...

Riding shotgun in the Le Mans
passing a bottle of bourbon
Lou Reed's ‘Sweet Jane'
on ‘Rock and Roll Animal'
...

Flat water, calm winds
overcast day turns to sunshine
pelicans fly in formation
like arrowheads piercing the sky
...

Five days out and everything stunk
woods, houses, bodies
sour air clogged my throat, I spit it in gobs
onto the limb strewn yard
...

butterflies in the garden
dancing from flower to bush
cocaine fear, cocaine sweat
I have the turntable on,
...

We were young and sincere
spending our nights making love
and talking
watching the sunrise
...

She put her lipstick on
Painting her lips
The color of blood
I eat mac and cheese
...

She brushes her long black hair
Till it shines like the wings of a raven
I watch
As she piles it on top of her head
...

The syphilitic old hunchback sold pencils
burlap bag at her side
we rode bikes through town
stopping to yell obscenities
...

I open the door
let little man in,
he stumbles as he crosses the threshold.
I'm in the kitchen, putting dishes away,
...

The fields are hot and we kick up dust as we walk the green rows, sweat and dirt run down our necks and
under our cheap cotton shirts.
Anthony's arms are huge and covered with veins that twist like snakes beneath his dark skin
tobacco sap on his thick hands.
...

Wasted on blotter, lighting fireworks with my cigar and tossing them out
In the cold winter air with the heater turned up,
swigging tequila from a pint bottle
They go boom.
...

I held her hand
washed the sweat from her face with a damp cloth
her blue eyes as big as the sky
she shook
...

On my third beer
Sucking the blood from my knuckle,
I remember Christmas
From ‘86
...