Remember that time you came over
and ate all of the corn and tomatoes
we had set out for dinner
before we could even offer
it to you, and, smiling at me,
one golden kernel stuck over
an incisor, you said it wasn’t hard
to be a rock star, but it makes you
hungry all the time, and the little garden
you keep on the tour bus,
everything comes out of it tasting
like exhaust, and then you hugged
my grandma, you left
a little food on her shoulder
as you pulled away, but you didn’t
notice, cause dad was hollering,
“Was the Chicken Man real?”
and all I wanted to know
was, ‘Was Clarence Clemons real?’,
and you didn’t answer,
but left us with a jolt and a mess of corn,
left us with those sloppy tomatoes, and grandma
smiling anyways, brushing off
her shoulder what was left of you?
Lee Busby was raised in Ozark county and studied Poetry and Creative Writing at Missouri State University before attending Vermont College of Fine Arts for his M.F.A. Lee has published three collections of poetry: Wild Strawberries published by Finishing Line Press, and 5th Generation Immigrant and Fingertip Scripture (F.S. was cowritten with poet Ian Bodkin) both published by ELJ Publications. Lee has moved around from Bakersfield, MO to Springfield, MO to Kansas City, MO, and has most recently moved to St. Petersburg, FL.
the water and the gills 