They  called me Boy but not in the way you think.

The parents hadn’t picked out a middle name.

The hospital needed the paperwork thus the tag.

Looking back , I’m not certain if that was a lie or 

something misremembered. 

There are definitely people without a middle name.

Never will I know the reaction to a boy named Frank.

Thankfully the Cash fan never called me by Sue.

 

There’s the grandpa I never knew. He was lost in the forest 

while hunting deer. Never coming back ..... just disappeared .

Later on when I called them on the story . “ Oh Boy , you’ve

really got that wrong.”  Mom asked who’d put that in my head .

Duh ,” Mom its you .” “ I never said that but here’s the real tale ,

a mean looking version of Charles walked out of a bar . The man

he pummeled followed  to the car. Put him down from behind.

Bleeding out in a gravel parking lot , the killer never caught.

It was just another story from the Streets of Bakersfield.”

 

That was a little fib , just about the diction Mom used .. The facts

remain and grandpas would  be One hundred and eight today.

A family tells tall tales and remember things in different ways .

A lot of my early years were filled with Coors and Purple Haze.

The Grandma who was his wife , yeah a friendly party girl. 

The nicest hairdresser in a small ranching town.

She lived to 61 the first human I ever saw go down .

Oh as an afterthought her name was Thelma Brown.

 

The grandpa who we know lived one year longer . Booze again ,

way too early ,  but it seemed that the punishment fit the crime.

Nana Maryanne was the enabler , she couldn’t find fault amongst her boys .

Her mean drunken redneck  Bill always rated a second chance .

An open secret in the Tomato canning town . Peyton Place on

horseback , the deception spread around.

Too strange to be a lie , Bill became Abe every Indepence 

day parade. 

What made more sense were all the Dui’s. 

I idolized this man till his cheating hit deep into my heart.