Eldon Thigbee

So we’re at a conference

on some windy plain

wearing aboriginal bikinis

provided by some child

with faraway eyes,

and I’m concerned

for my laptop,

which is lost in a crowd

that conveniently disappears

before the first session

on teaching the conflicts

to those already conflicted.

We don’t remember

quite how we got here

but over a torturous route

from a forgotten cheap motel

where I may have left

some of my clothes

(maybe this explains

this damned bikini).

Oh, yes—there was

something about a dog.

Outside the open window

(which conference

opens its windows?)

a country & western band

in Gram Parsons-Nudie suits

plays a song called “Eldon Thigbee,”

and we’re farther from home

than we’ve ever been

though we don’t know

just what that means.