PARTY AT THE FARM


everyone is drunk at the big party
a woman tells you to end it
why is she telling you?
it is not your party
you walk to a pavilion
someone tells a gross story
you threaten to vomit
someone asks if you need the bathroom




















 

YOU AND IRENE


have been camping in a tiny cabin
made out of the box-bed
of an old straight truck
someone roars down the gravel road
in a bright orange SUV
they ram into the cabin
knock it off of its cinder blocks
begin to slowly push it
across the meadow
you climb up on the roof
with a chunk of wood
that you picked up as
the cabin made halting progress
you throw it at the windshield
it fails to break
you retrieve it
and throw it again




 

YOU THOUGHT THE ALLIGATOR


in the flooded back yard would go away
but it nearly bites you so you load your shotgun
and go after him both barrels injure him
but fail to kill him you reload and wait
to fire when he opens his mouth
finally he is no problem

YOUR BOSSY NEW GIRLFRIEND


wants to spend the night
but wants to sleep on the couch
unable to sleep you play computer games
until you hear a truck pulling into your yard
it is contractors there to make estimates
on repairs you do not need
when you send them away
you discover that your girlfriend
is the one who called them
with the best of intentions
she mentions something about
leaving you with enough money to get by
if things do not work out
you grimace


 

YOU AWAKEN TO STRANGE SOUNDS

in the back room
you assume it is Kat
opening the front door
you notice that the steps are gone
someone has jacked up the trailer
you climb down
the pipes leak profusely

YOU ARE RIDING WITH JEAN


on the back of a small scooter
down a gravel back road
that follows a narrow stream
the road abruptly turns left
up a steep grade
the scooter slows to a crawl
a large raccoon keeps coming at you
you keep kicking it away
the scooter halts; you pick up a stick
and drive the raccoon away
Jean climbs down into a ditch
which is somehow someone's basement
you stand on the road
and warn her not to trespass
























 

WE BROUGHT THE CASKET


the mausoleum door would not budge
showing real finesse a policeman
opened the door with a sledge hammer
the door to the tomb also would not open
the policeman displayed his talent
the tomb is occupied by a homeless person
old blankets he'd been sleeping on
pipes that he had been smoking
empty Schlitz 40 ounce bottles
the remains of dog food he'd been eating





























 

SHE LEFT YOU

in a house full of strangers
someone is using the bathroom
you use the one in the back
it has a curtain instead of a door
a small friendly dog approaches
the dog has fleas
somehow you have lost your pants
you recline on the sofa

YOU PILE THE PACKAGES


from Aunt Martha's house
into a tiny car
and a small pickup
pulling out into the highway
your hair gets tangled
in the branches of the trees



































 

JIM MORRISON


an overloaded truck with no brakes on the top of a mountain road
his famous photo on the record sleeve beckons to us from beyond the grave
come on it's cool























 

APPROACHING THE CABIN

you put the open car into four wheel drive
leave the graveled drive and take the scenic route
you burst into a glade and surprise a bear
wishing for an enclosed car you accelerate uphill
when you arrive at the cabin the bear has followed
you think he is angry but he rubs against your leg
and gently nibbles on your trousers
he follows you into the cabin
but you escape out the back
and alert the rangers
who arrive with a dart gun
and are skeptical of your story

CHANGING MOODS


the mournful notes of a country song
assault you as you enter the old house
downstairs you find the high-fi
and put on a different tape
"turn on the speaker in the bar," Jim says
you didn't know Jim was here
you didn't know there was a bar

UNRECONCILIATED


ex meets you in the old house
wanting reconciliation
but you cannot

FAST FOOD AND ATHLETICS


the cat has followed you as you walk to the wrestling show
she disappears into an empty field
all the wrestlers are having dinner at a fast food joint
the lights go out and several people walk in
the smallest man picks up a chair
and nearly brains the mariachi band
children surround the restaurant
watching through the windows



























 

THE SHAGGY BROWN COW


bellows and kicks at the pigs
who have been biting her young
several other pigs look on askance
you go to the barn to tell the farmer
you find a Ford tractor running unattended
which you have not been paid for
the farmer remarks that he will have to put
the pigs and cattle in separate fields






























 

YOU AND HER SPEND THE NIGHT


on a cheap folding bed in the dining room
she has cut her hair and dyed it red
she pees on the floor because
she can not find the toilet
you can not find your pants
so settle for some discarded blue jeans
that need a large patch on the bottom
you follow her as she searches for something
in a large building resembling an aircraft hangar




























 

THE FAT FISH


thrown off the freight you hopped
someone lends you a fishing pole
you catch a fat striped fish
in the overflowing drainage ditch
he struggles feebly in the shallows

YOU RIDE INTO THE TINY TOWN

all the roads out of town are flooded
even the train waits upon the tracks
everything up the road is under water
you sit in the gas station drive
and wonder what you will do

THE REUNION WITH OLD FRIENDS


ends abruptly when they steal
some old tires and your groceries
out of the back of your pickup
instead of helping the policeman
makes wry comments about your lifestyle

ANOTHER LAST CHANCE

the new owners give you a last chance
to remove your stuff from the old house
two old towels and a notebook full of your past
go into the box but the side tears out
Carla gets you another from the construction site
out of the dumpster despite no trespassing signs

THE RIVER IS RUNNING HIGH


so you will have to spend the night
the only remaining cot is in
the historic display; the preserved
enclave of the infamous murderess
you put aside her frilled blouse
stained with ancient blood
and settle into her too narrow too short
lumpy old cot; you speculate
what drove her to murder

Larry Blazek lives in southern Indiana and
has published the magazine-format collage
Opossum Holler Tarot since 1983.