your goodbyes bring me back

I savored these lines from a poem set on my desk by my favorite Norton Pub. rep. He saw it on the office wall of one of my grad school peers and thoughtfully brought me a copy, knowing I would love it. It's entitled "Goodbye, Tuscaloosa" and is composed by Paul Guest and Eliot Wilson, who were also in the grad program while I was there. I only wish I had time to type it in its entirety. But, there's a good chance not many of you care about ole UA.

Goodbye flying cockroaches you, too, were my ontology.

Goodbye magnolias. I will keep the memory of your shade like a secret.

Goodbye braless chain smoking attendant at the Cleansing Tide Laundromat. Your teeth are as yellow as crime scene tape, but your heart is as clean as a hound's tooth.

Goodbye Mexican roofers, burning in the sun or falling to your deaths. When I asked you what day it was, I meant what century.

Goodbye Tuscaloosa News--how I lived your oxymoron.

Goodbye coca-cola, goodbye sweet tea. You are as advertised.

Goodbye honeysuckle.

Goodbye darlin, suga, goodbye bless his heart.

Goodbye undefinable Capstone. So many times I asked and no one knew.

Goodbye to fried corn, fried steak, fried toasts, fried okra, and fried water.

Goodbye Pepitos and however one says joie de vivre in Mexican.

Goodbye Shelton State Community College students. Yours is the true devotion. For you I am a poolside father, reluctant and mindful.

Let me lie down between the bonfire and the library.

Goodbye Paul Bear Bryant--drop-kick me through the goalposts of life.

Goodbye Tuscaloosa. Your red clay roads do not run out.
I speak to you, and you to me, together, in praise.