smaller than Mayberry
“Smaller Than Mayberry”
on the mostly empty shelves
of a tiny grocery store
in a one-building town
a large ripe cucumber
lazily placed on top of a box
of Little Debbie snack cakes
an accidental metaphor
of the highest order
which I stared at like an art piece
and wondered
a really good pumpernickel,
you can just eat it plain
don't need anything with it
and that goes for everything
everything pure like air and light
like the very first time
it entered your consciousness
like the way you used to be fascinated
by simple colored blocks
I was getting out of the bath today
and had to tilt my head
to let water out of my ear
and it reminded me of swimming
but I can't think about swimming
it will remind me of everything,
and sometimes I don't want that
Mayberry and Mayberry R.F.D.
and their cousin, Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C.
Friday night and I'm reading
the Wikipedia entry
and finding out there wasn't
just the one show, but three
I'm writing this part of the poem
several years later, you see
Matlock used to be a favorite as well
“why don't you come in for a spell?”
so I did, and never left
and now everything reminds me
of everything else I know
can you tell?
~
2014 - 2017 + 2025