Chupacabra Listens to Conjunto

Clarence Wolfshohl

July 28, 2024

With the bajo sexto’s bounce

he taps his toe, claws pitching

up divots of caliche. He shimmies

from the waist down with the 

accordion’s wheezing swirls.

He imagines he is Gregorio Cortez

pursued by los rinches across

south Texas—Sequin to Eagle Pass—

one horizon ahead of the pursuing

posse of corrido gringos.

Or with Los Pingueños del Norte

desperate in the brush—el desesperado—

for food, for love, and for home,

running to the beat of ranchera

just one boracho perdido.

He dreams he has gone to San Antonio

and hangs out on West Commerce—

Viva el West Side—trying to see

the ghost of Lydia Mendoza in the bottom

of a long neck Lone Star.

But it is Monday, and Chupacabra

is just west of Cotulla, and the polka

fades on the air waves. Back to the grind,

sniffing cabrito on the hoof

in lonely arroyos.

Native of San Antonio, Clarence Wolfshohl has been active in the small press as writer and publisher for sixty years.  More recently, he has published in Southwest American Literature, The Mailer Review, New Texas, New Letters, and Texas Poetry Assignment.

Lightnin’ Hopkins’ Dream

Vincent Hostak

July 28, 2024

I'm goin' to Dallas, just to see my pony run
If I win any money, gonna bring my baby some

-Sam John “Lightnin” Hopkins

With no games of chance in Centerville

he traveled north to a brush track

to see his favorite mare

a swift filly he’s come to know

in dreams and songs and songs from dreams

Bog waters sing to him:

There’s a culvert in the bottom lands

where all the roots turned blue

They rise-up like the shackle-sores

above your driving shoes

When no one lets you speak out loud

you have no choice but to sing

you tune-up on a tailgate

bring ballads to a barrelhouse

with all your axe-gang ghosts in tow

A horsefly chants into his ear:

The track’s a steel-string flattop and

when she gallops up the fret

she hugs the rails on the clubhouse turn

into your second set

Vincent Hostak is a writer and media producer from Texas now living near the Front Range of Colorado south of Denver. His recently published poems are found in the journals Sonder Midwest and the Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas and as a contributor to the TPA. He writes & produces the podcast: Crossings-the Refugee Experience in America.

Texas Flood 2024

Jeffrey L. Taylor and Janelle Curlin-Taylor

July 21, 2024

“Well, it’s floodin’ down in Texas.
All of the telephone lines are down,”
Gulf to Vermont.

Power out.  No A/C.
People are angry.
“Do not drive,”
says the Houston mayor.
Manual can openers
are back in style.

“…tryin’ to call my baby.
Lord, I can’t get a single sound.”

Friends and family with power,
only hope for hot meals,
telling others you survived.

“Do not travel at night.”
Traffic lights out.  Flood waters
hiding in the dark.

“It’s about to drive me insane.”

Jeffrey L. Taylor is a retired Software Engineer.  Around 1990, poems started holding his sleep hostage.  He has been published in The Perch, California Quarterly, Texas Poetry Calendar, and Texas Poetry Assignment. Janelle Curlin-Taylor is descended from several generations of Texas poets. Her poetry has appeared in the di-verse-city Anthology, Blue Hole, Best Austin Poetry 2018 - 2019, Waco WordFest Anthology 2020, Texas Poetry Calendar 2021, Texas Poetry Assignments, the Lone Star Poetry anthology from Texas Poetry Assignment, and Voices de la Luna. She is married to California poet Jeffrey Taylor.

An Elegy for Kinky Friedman

Herman Sutter

July 21, 2024

The way I like to tell it

is this:

Jesus walks into a bar

looking for a rabbi

a presbyter or a priest

and all he found

was Kinky—grinning 

at the jukebox 

last quarter already

dropped into the slot

wondering what

Leadbelly song

the Son of God 

would like to hear first

and wondering 

if maybe tonight 

such weariness 

might take off his sandals

pull on some boots

and dance in the sawdust

with someone like me

Herman Sutter (award-winning poet/essayist) is the author of Stations (Wiseblood Books), and The World Before Grace (Wings Press), and “The Sorrowful Mystery of Racism,” St. Anthony Messenger. His work appears in: The Perch (Yale University), The Langdon Review, Benedict XVI Institute, Touchstone, i.e., The Merton Journal, as well as: Texas Poetry Calendar (2021) & By the Light of a Neon Moon (Madville Press, 2019). He received the 2021 Best Essay award from the CMA. His recent manuscript A Theology of Need was long listed for the Sexton prize.

 As a member of the literary/comedy group, The Writer Guys, he opened for Kinky Friedman at Rockefellers (in 1988).

Quieter Crowds

Milton Jordan

July 14, 2024

Now a solo guitarist touring

the nostalgia circuit, she smiled, nodding

acknowledgment to our scattered applause 

at the opening chords of that early hit

she’d performed with her Saddle Valley Sisters, 

a world-class fiddle, the second guitar 

backup vocalist and a bass player 

in the spotlights of much larger venues

when we were a much more raucous crowd.

Milton Jordan lives with Anne in Georgetown, Texas. He co-edited the first Texas Poetry Assignment anthology, Lone Star Poetry, Kallisto Gaia Press, 2022.