How High’s the Sky at Night in Beaumont, Texas

Jesse Doiron

October 15, 2023

Daddy told me that the sky at night –  

in Texas – is higher than the sun. 

He says it gets to be as far away as  

Lost Causes, and that’s about as far  

away as you can get from Beaumont  

‘cause it ain’t even really in the state. 

He says it gets to be so high up there 

you can’t even see it from down here, 

not even from that big ol’ red hotel  

downtown that no one ever lives in. 

He says the world’s got to go ‘round 

and around and around and ‘round 

and count to a hundred before the sky  

comes back down to ground, and only 

then can the sun crawl on top again  

and start to shine like new, like now. 

He says the whole dang thing gets all  

swallowed up in God’s good gullet, and he  

won’t let it out until the morning when he  

gets up and has to go do holy number two. 

He says if you was to try and follow up 

behind the sky all the way it goes ever’  

night, you’d meet your own behind  

and you could kiss that thing goodbye  

‘cause you’d be good and dead and gone 

for good just like poor ol’ Uncle Son. 

And.  

So there you go. 

That’s how high the sky is – at night  

– in Beaumont, Texas. 

Jesse Doiron has worked in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia as an educator and consultant. His teaching experience ranges from English for international business at the UC – Berkeley Extension in San Francisco to creative writing at the Mark Stiles Maximum Security Prison for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.