Pullin' Shorter Down

Got the letter yesterday.

“They’re pullin’ Shorter down,” Grandmama writes.

Some big company wanting to make a dog track.

In a few weeks we’re on the road and can’t get

there fast enough.

Town’s coming down in a few months.

“Everybody sold out and mostly gone already,” Grandmama

says in the letter and, “Come see your past before it’s all

dust, baby.”

I loved and hated the place.

Not enough room in the world

to tell my feelings about Shorter.

And now they’re pullin’ it all down.