Pappy lived at the kitchen table

When he wasn’t visiting Mr. Gill

Or eating raw oysters in the driveway;

He cussed and yelled

As he ate his grits and lady fingers;

Or he talked on the phone

And beat it with a hammer

When he got mad at it;

Every year for Easter

He dyed six dozen eggs;

And when she died,

He sat there

Cursing God

And the world.