by David Lee
You got any ideas about what it could be?
Nosir
you go out there and stare at it for a while
if you need lessons on that talent I’m available for instruction
I’ll bring along a chair if it takes too long
drawing up a mental plan of opportunity
to endure and prevail as the other man
you were named after once said
build your sculpture any way you want it
as long as it looks good from the kitchen window to your mama
as a monument for the rest of her life
to your teenage years and when you are done
we will call it the Statue of Limitations
until a better title comes along
anytime during construction you think it’s gone wrong
give the word I’ll knock it down with the tractor
you can start again until you get it right
Willy John built three, tore down the first two
finally settling on a tower amalgamated between an obelisk
and a Babel ziggurat, a spiral of plough shares
fenders and motor covers, tractor seats and steering wheels
a corn planter, spring tooth harrow and flat cultivator
manure spreader, deep trench, disc cultivator and windrower
all manner of painted and rusting equipment
conjoined invisible in the warp and woof, the new body
arose from a blood red brick base
and a gathering of barbed wire strung against
an open side like it emerged from the skeleton
of an overlooked and dying chthonic deity
an androgynous Texas god resurrected and ascending from the barnyard
straining against gravity’s death clutch
and his father’s terrible acrophobia
grasping upward into nothing more than still air
building materials so heavy and bundlesome that at last
Willy John devised and constructed a fifty eight foot derrick
with a block and tackle pulley system to hoick up
a John Deere engine block a magically and technically impossible
six feet above the rig: a great skull atop the megalith
a pair of steel irrigation pipes protruding
like massive horns upward from the sides
after the last arc weld lightning burst
the final acetylene flame, the penultimate binding smear
of cement, wrap of bailing wire, spit and glue
he brought his parents to stand beside the barn
and view the Monument to the South Plains
rising from the abandoned feed lot
and his father trembled, his mother wept
as if she were viewing the birth of a new grand child
before the great sculpture soughing with the wind’s movement
marking the pathway trace of light’s footfall
on the near horizon a ripening field of cotton
and behind, knee deep in the white foam of crop
three scattered pump jacks, their rise and fall
like the distant shapes of migrant pickers
working their slow way through the half mirage
My Lord, he said, Willy John, that thing’s alive
E. U. Washburn’s Story: Uncle Abe
I have not wasted my life
— Richard Shelton, “Desert Water”
Genesis 17:7
1
Oncet when I was a boy
a walking man come
to town twicet every year
folks didn’t know who he was
name him Uncle Abe
said he was lost and wandering
in his own mind
a harmless old thing just passing by
carried this paper bag in his hand
no child nor cat can not find out what’s in
I sidled him in the gravel road said
Mister Man, what you got in that paper sack?
he turnt round looked me up and down
like a rooster hypnotized
by a line in the sand
said Master Boy, I’ll tell you what I brought
but you answer me first one thing
you say how many years your mama’s got
I told and he said Not enough
tell me your grandmama’s home
I said she aint she’s dead and gone
2
he said
I was a almost whole live grown up boy oncet
like you walking along soon
had me a paper sack of store bought candy
going down the road
after work at the cotton gin
girlchild womern on her poach call me say
Mister Man, what you got in that possible sack?
come here show me right now
patted beside her where for me to set
I come to her she say What you bring?
I shook all over
she was beautiful as churchhouse sin
I felt as ugly as the real thing
she eat a piece without asking
I known deep in my paper sack it was
one chocolate covenant hiding to be last
pretty soon we almost racing
eating that candy so fast
she lay one smiling piece on her tongue
with her finger say Come here
put her mouth on mine
she pass me that seed
take it back and again
till the covenant was gone
then so was she
all but the memory
I had me one wife, son
four good chirren grown up
left and gone
but never nothing
like that day since come along
now I got hope and mebbe
and then whatall time’s left
this paperbag of sweet candy
with one covenant
for her somewhere waiting
if I’m so blessed
3
he told me his story that day
again every time since twicet a year
till the day he didn’t come here
I never stopped remembering
the promise I made
to never have to say
I got no more of my life to waste
I still try to look
down every street
at every porch
every old walking man’s face
every shadowed place
4
oncet mama say
Don’t you be shiftless boy
don’t you daydream your life away
pretty soon you be walking lonesome
empty head and pocket
like that crazy Uncle Aberham
kicking rocks down the gravel road
I said Oh Mama Mama
don’t even promise that might be so
it’s a whole live world
inside that lucky man
you and all the rest of this town
don’t even know
one sweet covenant
you caint never understand
Kay Stokes’ First Visitation
I’ll buy that sculpture from you
It’s not for sale
but you deem it a sculpture
Everything’s for sale and yes I do
Not everything
Yougn about name your price
I won’t sell it but I also
can’t sell it, it’s not mine
Whose is it?
My son made it
I suppose he owns it
or my wife
or even my daddy the original provider
maybe we all do
or maybe none of us
maybe it owns itself
What would you do with it?
I’d move it over to my place
If you could get it there
It
wouldn’t fit
it was made to be right here
Maybe I could make it fit
Ign hire a way to get it there
Maybe you couldn’t make it fit
then it would be neither useful nor ornamental
about like an erection on a mule
They say you got a way with words
They
Yep
The great arbiter of all knowledge
opinion and attitude in the known world
extending to the Texas borders
Pretty much
some say furthern that
You caint tell me you couldn’t use the money
even if you are a retired perfessor and all
No I can’t tell you that
But you won’t sell it
Why do you want it so much?
when you first noticed it you were quoted as saying
it was the ugliest thing you’d ever seen
Changed my mind
Why? Isn’t that a rarity?
Cause there aint another one around
I’d like for it to belong to me
I’d just like to say it was mine
Like about everything else in Garza County
Pretty much
Overheard Conversation Between Billy Klogphorne and his son William, age 16, a Few Years Back
Being your own man
is a good thing, Willy
it’s a first step
towards economic
independence
which is an oxymoron
and self-reliance
which may be a status
more attainable
at this juncture
but you need to understand
being your own self-reliant man
means one thing:
making a map ahead of time
to find your way out of Hell
which is damned close
to the sum total
of everything on earth I’ve learned
up to this particular juncture
in the process
At the Sign of the Flying Red Horse
1
Monroe Newberry
coming down the street pushing his bicycle
front tire flopping like a wet flag
into Johnny Bert Ezell’s filling station
What you got there, Monroe? he said
Monroe pointed at his bicycle, then at the tire, nodded
I can see that
it’s a green one that uster be a Western Flyer
by its looks
before it got to be a personal modified
version of something else
you want to use the bay
yougn go back and patch that tire
Monroe shook his head
You don’t know how to fix a flat tire?
Monroe shook his head
Your daddy he never shown you how to?
again
Well
Come on back then
it aint too busy this morning
I’ll give you a lesson in how to do it
brang that back here
Okay lay it on its side and turn it upside down
standing up so wegn get to the wheel
now you take a pair of pliars and a monkeyranch
you just uncrack that nut like this
loosen it up to where the wheel comes off
you don’t have to take the nut all the way off
it’s a little harder on a back tire
you’ll have to work it around the chain
you just aloosen it right here and slip it off the cog wheel
then it’ll be pretty much the same thing with it, too
Okay you take and bring the wheel
over here on the bench and get you a flat head screwdriver
put it right here under the tire edge
prize it up like this over the rim
so now work that screwdriver down
lifting the whole tire edge over the rim, see?
if it’s giving resistance and closing back up behind as you go
take and put the pliars handle up here
holt it open and now work that tire
all the way around until it’s off the rim all over
Okay
you reach in underneath
get this inner tube out from under the tire
being careful not to jerk out the valve stem
push it through its hole like this
and take that inner tube off the wheel
bring it over to the air hose and fill it up
now put it in a bucket of water or run a waterhose over it like this
you’ll see and mebbe hear the air hole
right there you see it? mark it with your finger
bring it back over to the bench and get your tire patching kit
I suppose you don’t have one here’s what it looks like
you can get you one at Bill Edwards Hardware and Appliance
it’ll last you almost a lifetime
take this lid off the can you see the rough edge part on it?
scrape that air hole with it like this
rough it up so the suption will hold
now get out the glue, see?
squirt a little over that roughed part and the hole
spread it out and blown on it a little
next shake the rubber patches out of the can
find you one that will cover the hole
yours is a little one so I’d use a small patch
if they all gone cut a big one down to size
now pull off the hesive cover on the back of the patch
so the sticky side’s out
just put that sonofagun right over that air hole
press down and smoothen it out
to where it’s neatened and flat, you see?
before you put it back in the tire eyeball measure
from the valve stem to the patch where the hole was
take and run your finger on the inside of the tire to where that is
so yougn find out what made the flat tire
there it is, see? that’s a goathead you runned over
so turn the tire over on the outside of where your finger is
see, it’s right there
you’ll need to get that sticker out with your fingers
or some pliars if you can’t get purchase on it
it’d pay you in the long run to sweep your fingers all down
the inside of your tire to see if it’s any other stickers poking through
yougn bust off the sharpies mebbe pick the stems out from the tread
save yourself doing it all over again before too long
if yougn get your daddy to give you a quarter
go down to Bill Edwards and buy you a tube of neverleak
and put it in, that’ll stop most goathead flats
now we put that inner tube back
on the wheel getting the valve stem in straight
work that tire back around the rim over the inner tube like this
take your screwdriver and put it under the tire
lift it up and see, it just pops back on
so we’ll air it up to 30
now we put this wheel back on the forks
tighten the nut up with the monkeyranch
and there you go. Done.
You think you can do it now?
Do what? said Monroe Newberry
Well I’ll swan said Johnny Bert Ezell
I thought you might speak one day
and here it is
2
Did you hear a word I said, boy?
I was ashowing you how to do it and telling you
all the way
Didn’t you hear?
Monroe nodded
But you can’t do it yourself now
after watching me and telling you what to do?
Monroe scrunched his shoulders
Well then, that’ll
be a quarter, son
What for? said Monroe
That’s good said Johnny Bert Ezell
For fixing your flat tire
it costes a quarter
Monroe held out his empty hands
What you got then?
Monroe shook his head
then put his hand in his pocket
pulled out a pocket knife
Give it here
Monroe shook his head
Why not? said Johnny Bert Ezell
shook his head again
Tell me said Johnny Bert Ezell
Daddy’s said Monroe
Hegn get it back
I’ll have it right here
hegn come for it
Johnny Bert Ezell held out his hand
Monroe scrunched his shoulders again
It’ll be all right said Johnny Bert Ezell
I’m not gone keep it
Monroe put the knife in his hand
then pointed to the bicycle
Yep, she’s ready to go
Monroe swung his leg over the bike
looked at Johnny Bert Ezell and said
See you
I’ll hope it’ll be sooner than later
said Johnny Bert Ezell
3
You took my pocketknife
away from my boy Monroe
said D’Wayne Newberry
That’s not ezactly right said Johnny Bert Ezell
he owed me a quarter and he didn’t have one
he give me that knife as collateral
What’d he own you a quarter for?
said D’Wayne Newberry
Fixing a flat tire
You charge a quarter for that?
it uster be a dime
Inflation said Johnny Bert Ezell
like the livestock man says on the radio
higher higher higher that’s the way it goes
That wadn’t his pocketknife
it’s mine
he didn’t have no right to give it to you
Yougn have it back
said Johnny Bert Ezell
I can?
Yessir
Give it here then
Nope, you’ve got to redeem it
A quarter?
No, I’ll need a bit more seeing as it’s purloined
it has sentimental value to me now
How much?
About a dollar’s worth
A dollar said D’Wayne Newberry
that’s almost as much as it costed new
Oh I imagine it cost moren that
Billy Klogphorne he collects pocketknives
I’ll bet you he would give me upward
of a dollar for it used
You’d sell my pocketknife to Billy Klogphorne?
I don’t have upwards of a dollar on me
Then it’s a bargain for you said Johnny Bert Ezell
a dollar and six bits new at least
yougn have this one for a dollar even
and I sharpened the blades
You did?
Yougn shave the hair off your arm with it now
