College and Walnut

Cracked against the ground or the roof

Or the windshield:

Black walnuts, green on the outside

Glistening poisonous pith

Spilling happily out of its skull

Four hours on the beautiful highway

HELL IS REAL

It’s not Kentucky but that was a nice touch, anyway.

Every other billboard drew us into the lion’s den

Wasn’t there supposed to be a stone in front of that tomb?

All that for one crateful

Precious black walnuts, green on the outside

Boiling into acrid piss on the electric stovetop

In the incorruptible blue dutch oven

You and me were soldier-stanced, staring

Through the window at the hawaiian-printed front seat

A mercury key glared back at us

From behind the locked car door

There’s a twin blade razor cut right down the middle of town

Unconfused cicatrix among random slashing scars

Like tally-marks on a ribcage

Only they go one way in both directions

And they don’t cross themselves like mom says they should

Two lines cut in the earth like the lines on a young man’s face

I think one of them led to where you found the dog

We won’t pass that way again

To the sacred deep square cut-out limestone

Pools of hungry water reeking like those walnuts

Green on the outside