Red Shuttleworth

TIP FOGARTY (1963)

“For graduation I gave her a black terrycloth
bathrobe, only such garment in Milford, Utah.
My dad, hunched shoulders from window repair,
electrical contracting, and sneaking off
to Nevada to guzzle whiskey off big titties,
says, ‘Every man knows what he needs to hack free of,’
which codes out to, ‘Don’t marry Angela May.’
But I love how she poses in the midnight center
of her daddy’s pasture, robe untied, quarter smile,
smackin’ hot in the thick white headlight beams
of my Dodge pick-up, like a special picnic treat,
not one flaw from God, no silly teasing,
like I’m some Swedish film director
at the high noon of his heart’s requirements.”

—from Rattle #21, Summer 2004