what about we get married, merle?
you’re almost done with school,
you got that night job at the paper,
we could live on that.
come bust me out of this place, merle.
i like mary fine.
maybe enough to marry her.
but i don’t know.
she wrote a letter to johnny reeves
asking if he’d do the ceremony and
if we could get married in ku klux robes,
with flowers embroidered over the fiery cross.
and johnny reeves said, yes.
but i never yet have
paid my 10 dollars to the klan.
and mary,
well, i don’t know what the klan would make of her.
when she was still down here,
she bought all her shoes
from the jew store.