Kernal Knowledge

The sleek and supple

knees of summer's

sweet corn sellers

bending sweaty

over tailgates

of the country's

red chevy's.

Sunburnt and delicate

naked ears

coco-buttered

and aromatic

wind tossled hair

the thin tie-

lines of spaghetti tops

glistening deliciously

in the sun.

Ah...

The fragrant ladies

selling sweet corn

by highways

in the heat

Two Succulent

fleshy ears

hanging

in their hands

and their thigh-backs

creased

by sunbaked steel

I fill both tanks

on my F-truck

glowering, do I

have cash enough

for a few seconds

of her endless summer

lying half baked

on a fuzzy pile

of dismembered ears?

I take them for dinner

boiled with saltwater

and spitting them onto

the grill until browned

like the sellers thighs

seated on that hot corrugated tail

after I paid for an ear

on pocket change.

She accepted the cigarette

I offered, "but for later,"

as she was "so close to the gas pump..."

she "...could grab the handle".

Driving away, her two ears

lying beside me on the seat,

running that conversation over

in my reptile brain

I had already devoured them

in my mind, and there were

many more, parked along the roadsides

and I stopped at each one

I picked up a dozen more

giving out a whole pack

of Lucky's

some to girls too young to drive.

I regret that none of them smoked

with me, but the cobs did,

when I placed them in the fire.