Postcards Sent Home

1.

Dust rolls out of the hills like fog,
and it’s too hot for shoes or shirts.
I’d like to take my hair off too,
peel it from my head, dip it in a bucket of ice,
and wear it around my neck like a bandana.

2.

Crickets attend the night,
add a falsetto drone
to the sound of us
pissing in the tumbleweeds.

3.

There’s a Tastee-Freeze in Fresno,
A & Dub’s closed down,
Jack-in-the-Box keeps popping up,
and McDonald’s owns the town.

4.

Somebody’s drying tobacco leaves
on the laundry line.
There, see them furl
and flap next to the nylons?

5.

A giant oak uncurls over the road,
sprinkles a fine yellow powder on the windshield.
The sun hits, touches it off
in a spasm of golden-red light.