New Orleans

Hank and Karen

You’re the kind of man
mamma warned me about –
always with the sexy smirk
and your hand metaphorically
in the honey pot when it’s
not handing some chick
her fourth dirty martini or,
no, I take that back – especially
when you’re handing her that
fourth drink because you know
it’s the one that’s gonna tip her
over the edge of judiciousness
and into deliciousness.

Yeah, mamma said don’t trust a
man with caramel-colored eyes,
especially when he calls you his
Muse and says makin’ love to you
breaks loose the words and they
all come a-tumblin out through
fingers as nimble on the keyboard
as they were on your skin, the words
skippinn’ outa his mouth as he’s lickin’
your neck on down to your toes and
across that bright white screen shinin’
like the eye of the Lord on the
mountain top.

I told mamma I was leavin’ you –
you and your hard drinkin’, devil
writin’ ways, and I didn’t give a damn
about being no muse and I didn’t
give a damn about your caramel-colored
eyes and your smooth talk that was
s’posed to be for my ears but ended
up in everybody elses. You can nimble
your fingers in other women’s honey
pot all you want but one day you’ll need
your muse again and it’ll be just too
damn bad.

________________________________

Shared with dVerse Poets Pub.

19 thoughts on “Hank and Karen”

  2. FABULOUS!
    This could be the opening to a really good movie, all scenic and seamy and steamy and raw. Set in New Orleans. Ashlie Judd in the cast. Beautiful cinematography. Can you see it? ;-)

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  4. Haha! @Kim, I have to fess up. I just finished watching Californication on DVD and this was written during one of the episodes. Hank and Karen are the main characters who inspired this piece – I just added a southern twist.
    @Mary and @Martin, thanks so much for the compliments! Mary, I read this out loud and dropped the g’s exactly where I drop them myself and changed a few words to reflect words I use myself. Even though I’ve lived in New Orleans over 30 years I still have a bit of a Mississippi twang. (So I’m told.)

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  5. love the language of this, the tone and the vernacular. and the story, reminds me of a bukowski-like character. very well written, enjoyed very much

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  10. Home run! I absolutely loved this! The dialect is perfect and the relationship depicted is spot on perfect. “…it’ll be too damned bad.” Methinks thou doest protest too much. – Thanks, el Mosk

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  15. Poetics for dummies — never ever screw your muse. Golden words are not mined from honeypots but honied thoughts! And flesh is not a page to write one’s selfish manias onto. Been there burned that to char. Loved this blue narrative about erring from “judiciousness” into “deliciousness.” – Brendan

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  16. oh, love the voice in this- very strong. and Ilike the conversational feel to it but also the poetic lines like “tip her
    over the edge of judiciousness
    and into deliciousness.” and “bright white screen shinin’
    like the eye of the Lord on the
    mountain top”

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