Rockport Wink
Tag Archives: Texas
Austin 2020
Photo Credit M. Dorsey Cartwright
All Austin’s Chillin’
DIRECTIONS TO LOS NOVIOS RANCH
DIRECTIONS TO LOS NOVIOS RANCH
for Claire and George
A hundred miles south of San Antone
Los Novios means The Sweethearts
They had Brahmas in the pasture
they had a gator in the pond
They got big Blue Indigo snakes
there to eat them pesky rattlers
Though mesquite may be as close
as you get to a sweetheart tree
The roadrunner on the woodpile
is all puffed up and singing
Hey girls, look at me
TIME IN TEXAS
TIME IN TEXAS
You race it in Dallas
drown it in Houston
and dance with it in Austin
Any farther South
and you have to wrap
it around a siesta
a burrito with salsa at both ends
TEN GENERATIONS OF BUTTERFLIES
TEN GENERATIONS OF BUTTERFLIES
or BACK TO THE GARDEN
It is mid November
and there are Monarchs
everywhere
at our new Texas home
It takes five generations
each way for them to get
from Mexico to Canada
and back
(Stan said so, and he
would know)
About sixty years ago
we lived for a year or two
at my grandfather’s farm
He had a garden
A Canadian national treasure
(The newspapers all said so)
Ten thousand trees planted
on the bald-assed prairie
rich with fruit and flowers
no one else would even test
that far north and west
I watch generation nine or ten
lightly and unerringly
almost home again
and feel his DNA
happily spinning
in every cell
REMEMBERING THE
REMEMBERING THE
Architects of Texas
are often charged with the task
of adding a little southern charm
to an eastern chain’s boxlike plan
So
that is
why you’ll see
Spanish Mission touches
on the top and corners of the
new hotel out on Airport Road
Holiday Inn Alamoed
ANGELS IN TEXAS
ANGELS IN TEXAS
If you can’t die
In a state of grace
you might just die
in the state of Texas
If you can’t
Be carried on high
by the white wings of angels
You may still
be lifted with loving care
borne up on the black wings of buzzards
COFFEE HOUSE HOUSTON
COFFEE HOUSE HOUSTON
Sitting outside around the round table
Dallas and Buda and the boys
coffee cigarettes and stories
Inside of each, tables within tables
other Budas, other Dallas
votes being taken and taken again
A clear enough majority
though far from unanimous
Texas sunshine helped the swing
Fine then, another cigarette
another coffee – one more story
nobody’s in a hurry ‘round here
YOU ARE THE U IN HOUSTON TO ME
YOU ARE THE U IN HOUSTON TO ME
How could I ever leave you love
if you didn’t live in Houston
If it wasn’t for the humid swamp
and the trash along the bayou
how could I say good-bye to you
You know I love you dearly
and it ain’t you that makes me run
but Houston traffic’s far from fun
and every Bubba’s got a gun
Yet even with all of that
and the country’s worst damn air
you know that I’ll keep coming back
as long as you are there
And I’ll keep leaving Houston too
after a muggy smoggy day or two
One of these days I hope you know
I’ll take you with me when I go