APPLE-CORE

dust settles everywhere

What’s left over:

Motel skeleton crew,

hold outs.

 

What’s left over:

Primal, Ozarkian,

no hand-outs.

 

Spitting when they talk

Side orders of phlegm

Every greasy spoon is a museum.

 

Accents no one recognizes

Slow smiles

Wheezing laughs

Mis-timed handshakes

mis-read head nods

Are we related?

 

All thorns and warts

Dust choke of stuck ghosts

No hygiene

The clean parts fell off,

and the essentials operate in filth.

 

The center,

that which contains the seeds,

is always left behind.