From the boy who ate rock-salt off the road

I like the skins on redskin peanuts because they remind me of when my dad would take me to the hardware store. They had a peanut machine at the counter from which you could purchase a handful for a nickel. Sometimes he'd let me buy some and other times I'd simply pull the salty-tasty redskin husk remnants down the dispenser chute. Of course, maybe it was the atmosphere that made it so flavorful: the smell of planting seeds and fertilizer wafting from open galvanized bins married to the scent of an oiled wooden floor.

* * *

All Leaves

If I were the accountant of rights and wrongs surely I might add them all up and try to find
the measure of credit to which I could balance
each emotional debit in my register

I'd be a mighty-fine accountant...

But the more I count these, the less I grow
and all the keeping track and perfect tote serves
as it would to gather All Leaves in Autumn for what
account and purpose Winter would not care or know