A Beat Poet Writes A Bro Country Song

I brought the producer a song about alienation. He said, “Can alienation happen on a pontoon?” Man,alienation can happen anywhere.

“TAILGATE OF THE SOUL”

Daddy left me forty acres

and an inability to name my feelings.

I bought a truck big enoughto carry both.

Got mud on my boots,which establishes authenticity.

Got holes in my jeans,which were established at the factory.

Got a girl in the passenger seat

whose entire backstory

is shorts.

She says, “Where we headed?”

Baby,

if I knew that,

I wouldn’t need

all these auxiliary lights.

Cast a line,

crack a can,

make a little noise for the working man.

Raise some hell, roll some coal—

drop that tailgate of the soul.

The bass drops.

A second truck appears.

Nobody questions this.

We fish

because the lake does not ask

what happened to our potential.

We hunt

because sitting motionless in the woods

is therapy

if you bring a weapon.

We golf

because sometimes a man must walk

through chemically perfected nature

and whisper

"Sumbitch"

at a pond.

There’s a bonfire by the water,

a cooler full of temporary answers,

and seventeen people yelling

WOOOO

with the raw spiritual urgency

of seventeen people

contractually required

to have a good time.

Somebody’s cousin brought a side-by-side.

Somebody’s brother brought a divorce.

Both are expensive.

Both handle poorly in the mud.

Cast a line,

crack a can,

make a little noise for the working man.

Raise some hell, roll some coal—

drop that tailgate of the soul.

**(NOTE: For the bridge,I remove my sunglasses. This means we are discussing Daddy.)**

Daddy never said he loved me.

He showed me how to bait a hook.

For years I thought love

was something you concealed

inside a worm.

The girl dances in the headlights.

The moon hangs over the feed store.

A red cup blows across the gravel

like a tiny disposable American dream.

I whisper,“What are we all running from?”

Cast a line,

crack a can,

make a little noise for the working man.

Raise some hell, roll some coal—

drop that tailgate of the soul.