Uncle Jim looked like a ‘49 Ford
Spoke a southern drawl
Kept his yellowed fingers busy
Rolling cigarettes
Slowed his worried mind
With Pabst Blue Ribbon
Said he was nineteen
At seventeen and joined the marines
Gained medical release
Down in his back
Took a hitchhiked car
With the man’s pistol
Spent time in a North Carolina prison
Lost half an ear
In a pickup wreck
Withstood gospel peddlers
Laughed at heaven and hell
Swapped women like shirts
Made the roundest ball
You ever saw on an arm
One sunny southern day
He said
It’s too hot
To go in swimming
So I swung on his muscle
Granny played
On top of ole smokey
Mama cut watermelon
And that night
We all put
Ketchup in our oyster stew
