there in the dim lights of the moon half-covered in dark clouds
on the banks of the Pea river about where it meets with the
Choctawhatchee in the down south eastern parts
of 'Bama around a turn into the sandy banks
we stood
glowing
it was half past four
in the morn'
my truck was stuck in the mud

and we tried to figure how we'd explain to your
ex-football linebacker dad
runner-up to the Heisman
before he tore his Achille's tendon
why we had not made your curfew
and I was thinking I'd just kiss you
then move hastily off to Mississippi
when you
said hey
I love you

and it all changed I became
Superman
revved that Chevy
like it was a four-wheel drive and we spun
out of the soup
mud flying everywhere and
when I got you home


your dad saw all the muck and thought
we had been lying
out playing all night and beat me like
a red headed step-child
and you were trying
to hold him back and I was reeling
innocently

when he believed me a year later and invited me
to a game of football on the lawn
I just had to pretend
my Achilles
tendon was broke

when we made love finally two years later
I didn't need any tendons