READING THE LEDGERS

Keith Vaughan 1912-1977
Three Figures in a Landscape, c1960

Reading the Ledgers
______________________

“Now I want you
to tell me just one
more thing more.
Why do you hate
The South?”
—William Faulkner,
Absalom, Absalom

“I don’t hate the South”—
I told Shreve quickly without
Thinking about it.

I didn’t hate it—
I didn’t fuckin’ hate it,
Didn’t hate the South!!!

Shreve just smirked at me—
He was good at reading my
Mind easy by then.

Why else would I talk—
About it night after night
After we had sex.

Shreve McCannon knew—
Things about me nobody
Else would ever know.

How I fainted there—
In Dalton Ames’s strong arms
On the bridge that day.

How he smirked at me—
Just like Shreve does after we
Get down in the dorm.