There wasn’t a plan for his arrival, would he soon depart
A small propeller light as air not lifting his head for four solid months
They flew 24 times in 24 years and eventually landed just south of the river
The town dump was filled with broken porcelain
tangled, mangled memories; highway 23
Driven down like a deserted Cowtown that echoes shot guns and drunk can cans of the past
No longer here, it simply can’t
Recall the story of a boy with freckles who picked pickles who walked quickly
His thoughts racing ahead to the life of a future salesman in pressed white shirts
impressed with change that jingled in his pockets
Deep life of lack created true treasure; coins ran out, and the old grocery store collapsed
in 1930 when grace ran out of space
Groceries all gone, credit never repaid —
Grandpa retreated to his elaborate garden of basic flowers in that humble yard, a measuring tape away
From the edge I could see rotten tires, dolls with poked out eyes and missing limbs;
Grandma never captured smiling again
She forced me to drink castor oil and I cried for my sister when I thought I heard a ghost —
it was just the sound of tiny feet, mice walking the worthless post
I never climbed to investigate nor tried to retrace his steps
to the bowling alley or the print shop where uncle worked his only job
Not to the home where he discovered the dead lady
under an apple tree, nor to the other side of the track where he plucked suckers by the sack
The humble beginnings of little Pee Wee, baby number sixteen
Drank milky cabbage broth and ate doughy homemade bread
to stretch his body into a lean young man
the Navy a vacation to exotic lands
He peeled his wheels and potatoes too, swam with puffer fishes
then carried a large mahogany elephant lamp from Pakistan to Paynesville for his Mother
This light he owned in his beautiful mind, illuminated like no other
Larry forged onward manifesting life until one day he lost his dog, his home, his wife
Where did this feckless man go?
Filling his own imaginary shoes
he walked from Arizona to Florida receiving transmissions; anointed with the news
Spread the word crossing places in circular patterns
enjoying donuts, bacon, and unfamiliar smiles — the sunny side of the fence, he told me this prose:
I was born there! Ha Ha Ha! La La Lisa! I love life and so do you — I have a blood disorder
I’m going to be OK, he used to say
A homeless believer never wavering from his mission:
bring joy and slap stick the people
they are ALL God’s creatures; the patchy, spotted, contorted, distorted and the way off in outer space —
he greeted them all with the exact same enthusiasm
he’s the salesman for the Lord! Resurrected by padded walls, shackled feet
and medicated dreams, his body crumbled from within —
the little boy man never gave up and never did give in
All his money away for decades to the blind, the odd; freakshows to the rest
Epic Larry and his magnificent friends simply believed the best