black mountain

          for J. Peter Moore

along the drive the rhododendron crease
& wait. my mother’s mother praised these
days. a star fell from the ceiling in my
father’s house & made the vacuum smoke.
wood smoke on cerulean. i have another
dream of jean charlot passed by every son
& so & not seen: stalks all approaching
to raze studies above: hand shades eyes.

over the song & tear-sheet numbers: will
trade for local soul: meat on metal on wood.
he took up the brio & choired three minute
ten inch wax. the unraveling treble clef was
trouble: & threw a rod wheeling his necker
knob: best delta poison in the whiskey.

poem for tuba & trombone

all this difficult brass waits for the minor
chords & shuttlecocks playing out troubles.
hands that milled cotton in the old armory.
sons & daughters still wish in mill houses.
nastic bubble of winds sight-reading four
crooked letters. strings re-tuned to slide.
about embouchure & toe-tap. tongued
notes & pressure. repetition of middle B.

fishermen lower hats on graveyard creek
bridge while his slow procession rolls by:
code of bottomland & eroded red clay roads.
code of the tallapoosa. we lower namesake.
clear every waterkey. blue tailgate & contra-
bass clamber to soughing adrift in kudzu.