Robert B. Cooke

Location: Birmingham, AL
Date of Birth: 9/5/55
Email: robert_b_cooke@mindspring.com
Previous Publications: Stirring V1:E1

WHITE FLIGHT

I do yard work because it's easier
I work in north Shelby County, and
They always tell me they bought there
Because their broker said they should,
Because it was a good neighborhood.

Because they left their neighborhood closer to Birmingham,
Because they left their parents' neighborhood.
And I mow their lawns and trim their shrubs,
And when the bones begin to surface in their yards
And stink and rot in the light
With blood and putrid flesh,
They always tell me to plant another shrub there.
Plant nandina, plant forsythia, plant holly, plant boxwood
Plant azaleas.
Cover it up.

And they always say,
"I don't know why that keeps coming up in our yard.
We moved here because it was a nice neighborhood."

- Poetry - Letter on the Eve of My Wedding Compendium White Flight Never Open a Suitcase in the Rain Matriphagy Vigil Ashes Learning How Musings from an Airport Window Vespers Mamma Nací Muy Tarde For Someone With Eyes Less Like Her Own The Penitent - Prose - Syndicated Syrian Rapsodiazul All the Underground Madmen Memories of Salvador - Plays - Office Hours