Hank Aaron

Flash

Can circle the earth twice
in 3 minutes
Can vibrate though walls

but

Can’t keep a girlfriend
Can’t be trusted with others secrets
Can’t keep up with
the smaller details

Can help stop crimes
Can show a flashy side
in fashion
Can show up in time.

But
Can’t hold an punch
Can’t stay away from lost women
Can’t leave
well
enough
alone..

The Preacher
39 x 34

My family were Pentecostal and we attended church 3 times a week. This painting represents one preacher we had in Elisabethton, Tennessee. I remember him by how he was very indifferent to how he would dress. Sometimes the preacher would threaten:” If you don’t give your soul to Jesus today, you might die in a car wreck on your way home”

“Aunt Pauline”

I remember

cousins
barrel horses
gravy and biscuits

remembered

Uncle Walter and his advice

“speed kills and if you drive like hell, you’ll get there”

remembering..thinking

Going away party
for my stepfather
leaving
for
prison

I remember
when

Aunt Pauline
would bathe

remember that

wash pan
in the
middle of
a room

me
cousin
on the edge
of
that bed

remember her

suds
sliding
down
her thighs
tits
knees

like the goddess
in the painting
standing
in the huge
seashell..

Thor and the voices in his head

Wonder Woman verses tornado
35 x 35
painting collage

“Fried Pies and hitch hiking”

To go see my
girlfriend
Kandy
older
taller
smarter

a thumb
some hope

with strangers
and grabbers

I did back in
the early 80s

vinyl
dress jacket
stacked
shoes
me dressed
for satisfaction

100 miles away every weekend.

She meets me
at
her door
her carpet
her bed
sweet love
and
fried pies

(her daddy owned a fried pied company)

Laura Palmer

Jake from Newland

Jake grew up
in Newland North Carolina.
A lot of folks in Newland figured
he had some kind of dissociative
identity disorder, previously called multiple personality disorder.
Usually a reaction to trauma
as a way to help a person avoid
bad memories.
Jake’s trauma was partially
the result of injuries he suffered
from fighting
in high school starting with that
first wedgie attempt.
Balled hand to fist..
That day (for the first time)
Jake punched a guy in the face.
Satisfying to watch the reaction.
Fist to nose..blood.
Jake found or made that safe place.

Flavor Flav