To Remember A Smile Poem by James McLain

I as a child had rattle snakes that I sold
To the ice cream man at two dollars a foot.
He in turn would sell them at ross island
In Miami to make anti serum.
I caught owls and hawks I raised from chicks
At twenty five dollars apiece.

A boa constrictor could for twenty dollars
Be purchased from Montgomery Wards.
At seven feet long roaming free in the house
It ate one of my mothers tea cup poodles.
I was ten years old and lied to my mother
And said that someone stopped in front of our home
And took it.
She did not notice the large buldge in the snake
And still feel bad to this day, mom's been gone a year
This coming October.

My best friends mother would answer the door in her
Panties,
Of which thinking back I paid no attention too.
Off we would go to catch what ever we could in the woods
Which in the sixties were deep and dark where we'd eat
What ever grew in some person's yard.
Coming back with a small alligator sometimes or with
A huge soft shell turtle that we would sell to the garbage men
For five dollars apiece.
Life for a prepubescent young boy was to remember a smile
From then.