He arrived at the Bordello
at the end of a dirt road, off in the sticks
of Culver Whitney County.
Cluttered with kudzu and blue graffiti...
Windows boarded, and shutters shut.
A neon clam, dark and in poor taste
had fallen from it's perch
and now demented , lay
draped over a thorny bush...
misshapen by
the prevailing winds
of neglect...
along with shards of tinted glass,
scattered throughout
the abandoned plot.
He could almost hear
the catcalls and the rough flagons
boasting in the velvet dusk
of forgotten scandals.
as baroque chandeliers
hovered above
the rutting
and the
dice.

above the black soot on the red carpet, garnishing the parlor
of lost harlots and extraordinary tales of loneliness
coiled around a banister descending now -
from unattended chambers
to an empty riot of broken barstools
and brass spittoons.

With a pen, he sketched the facade
of this dilapidated madame
and he made sure to include
the moonshine barrel -
next to the dead carnival
of earthly delights. choking on vines
and termites.

he captured the ordinary macabre
of a lifeless magpie
at the foot of a flight of stairs
that led to a groaning burgundy;
crushed by time and abandon...
after the coal mine closed
and the Church moved
to Foley, next town over -
strapped to the bed
of a wide load truck
with just enough
rope
to hang a
serpent from
a star.

he drove
home without
the radio.
and slept
on
the hood
of his
car.

by
the side
of the
road.