Serpent Fishing Poem by Jeffrey Quattlebaum

The guy down at the car shop
the mechanic
he told me
serpents crawl into his skin
like hairs and
grow through his face
right under the skin.
'You can see them, look, right here.'
and he pointed to his face
holes in his face
'I get a toothpick and dig them out.'
he said he can feel them
moving around
trying to get to his brain
I asked him
about my water pump
did he think he could get to it
else I'd be walking
he mashed his skin
between his fingers
but I didn't see any serpents come out.

'Closed Saturday's, nothing but old men wanting the oil changed.'

On Sunday
I got my car
and Danny showed me his
serpent he picked from his face
it was inside a baby food jar
and looked like a piece of string
I think it was a piece of string
Danny had a band-aid
on his neck
and one on his cheek
under his eye
he spent Saturday night
with the chickens
clucking
and Serpent Fishing
he said
he been chasing that one for a while now
and it would be 122 bucks for the water pump job
plus 15 for a new belt.