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    Walkin' the Dog

    The Arkansas River gets no respect

    Not like the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Colorado

    The Arkansas River gets no respect

    But it’s a mean piece of water, my friend

     

    Especially where it flows from Oklahoma into the state which bears its name

    It’s wide and deep and big and bad

    The currents surge in all directions at a sprinter’s pace

    They define the water like scars on a boxer’s face

     

    We’re there on the pier in Fort Smith

    Having dinner by the window

    The Arkansas

    Angry and flooded

    Is right below us

    This restaurant is big but it’s not like some upscale palace

    It’s not like some upscale palace on a pier by a yacht club

    No, it’s old and it’s moldy and in need of repair

    Like the boardwalk in Atlantic City

    Like Cannery Row

    Like General Motors

    It’s old and it’s moldy and in need of repair

    And we’re the only ones there

     

    The waitress finally came

    Her name was Mindy

    She’d got there late

    To get to work she had to drive through the rain across Fort Smith

    Arkansas’s second largest city

    And the state capitol of boarded-up businesses and foreclosed homes

     

    The waitress finally came

    Her name was Mindy

    She tried to be friendly but her heart wasn’t in it

    Not mad, not sad, just

    Defeated

     

    We could see the bridge across the river

    The bridge across the river where a train was waiting

    Waiting for the high middle section of the bridge to be lowered so it could get across

    “There’s no one on that bridge,” Mindy said as if she were talking about herself

    “There’s a guy far away and he just pushes a button and it comes down”

    Then she perks up

    Tells us a story

    “The train yard on the far side of the bridge is a great place to run your dogs

    Last week our boxer went into the water there after a goose

    She got caught in the current, almost didn’t make it back

    I had my shoes off and I was fixin’ to go in after her”

     

    We stared at the water beneath us

    Boiling and angry

    Then we looked at her with disbelief

    She caught our thought and hurled it back

    “Believe me, I was goin’ in

    I’d do anything for that dog”

     

    Now her bright eyes went back to dim as she shifted her gaze

    From the bridge to the empty restaurant

    Table after table

    All dressed up with no place to go

    “You’ll be my only customers tonight,” she said

    Her pain was out there in the open

    The humidity made it smell

    “People stay in when it rains,” my wife said, trying hard to sound sincere

    “Probably real busy here on the weekends,” I added

    “It’s been like this for months” she said

    Only the dullness in her voice kept her words from slitting her wrists

     

    But I saw something else in her eyes

    A longing

    A longing for a destination that she couldn’t yet describe

    “Show me the….!!”

    Show her the what?

    She couldn’t say ‘cause she didn’t know
    Who will reach her? Who will teach her?

    Will it be some preacher

    Stealing in the name of the Lord on late night TV?

    Will it be the busboy?

    The busboy

    Rising ‘bove the minimum by selling clouds of joy

     

    Or will it be you? 

    What can you do for Mindy?

    This girl next door

    This miss of America

    This statue of liberty welcoming you to her state of mind

    Can you describe a horizon

    That will get her eyes up off her shoes?

    Describe possibilities that will make melodies of her blues?

    ‘Cause when she said she would dive into the raging water

    She wasn’t talking about a sacrifice

    She was just willing to pay a price

    For a happy ending

    A glass at least half full

     

    Mindy will follow you anywhere

    If you speak her language to show you care

    If you use words so right

    That she’ll want to take a chance

    Use words that are beats and can make a square

    Dance

    Words without distance and a bit of romance

    Words universal

    That make feelings flow and thoughts unleash

     

    Mindy

    She’ll follow you anywhere

    If you speak her language to show you care

    Mindy

    She’d do anything for that dog

    What will you do for her?

     

    Will you take off your shoes and go in that water

    To make sure she isn’t swept away?

     

     

    Poem / 2009

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