A small twist of fate
Changes the language
I'm writing this in.

It infuriates me.
It rejuvenates me.
It frustrates me.
It creates me.
It kills me.
It fills me.
It weakens me.
It strengthens me.
It deceives me.
It receives me.
It IS me.

Humility and Humiliation
Are first cousins of a sort.
When they roll off my tongue,
They seem identical twins, or
If not siblings
At least sharing some common ancestry.
But after they flee my mouth,
The resemblance ends.

Humiliation is designed by others
Their words twist, morph, bend, break.
Until the face I see,
When I look in the mirror,
No longer belongs to me.

Humility, however,
Comes from within.
No tongue can give it life,
Not even my own.

Humility is an acceptance,
Not a rejection,
Of who I am,
Who I am not.

To be
Humble,
Is to simply
Be.

Cow **** and frost,
Wood smoke and spice.
Cologne and starch,
Vanilla and public schools.
Soap and cotton,
Sweat and coffee.
Wet dog and cut grass,
Hot, soaked cement.
Sea salt and sand,
Coconut scented lotion.
*** in a Sonic Cup,
Cigarette down to its ****.
Horse **** and hay,
Gunpowder and beer.
These things don't match,
Sure as hell don't rhyme;
But that's ok,
They're all mine.

My father's old Cadillac,
"Betsy", was an old champagne color,
With fabric that hung from the roof
As Betsy carried us
From our small East Texas town
To a slightly bigger town that
Actually has a Luby's

Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion"
Is coming through the dulled speakers,
As it does every Saturday evening.
I lay my head against the cool glass of
My window in the back seat and
Close my eyes and listen to Keillor's
Crooner voice softly and gently take
Me to the shores of Lake Woebegone.

I loved the stories of Lake Woebegone
Before I knew it was not a real place.
Before I even realized the name
Was itself a pun.
I still do,
But back then I would listen
And imagine moving and
Living there one day.

My father eventually
Sold Betsy to the only
Place in town that would
Take her,
A junkyard.

I'm not sure what he saw
In that old Cadillac
But whatever it was
Stuck with him.
Betsy's hood ornament sits
On his mahogany desk in his office and
Overlooks the bay.