Storyteller
write an article:
“Good prose is often described as clear and direct, allowing the reader to connect with the content without being distracted by complex, artificial structures.”
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“ one Mississippi two Mississippi
Boom! The Lightning strikes”
driving over to Pascagoula tomorrow Mississippi ain’t to far-my friend plays guitar at a bar by the tracks
he used to be a star
we got a room in an old house with a wrap around porch
the columns are covered in vines - there’s a four poster bed and a ceiling fan
hope we sleep alright
it’s been a while since I been anywhere
my daughter wants me to try
I never went much to Mississippi
a stones throw from
the state line
down on the Gulf of Mexico
saltwater delta divine
there’s a lot about living down south that I hate
but I dig it
most all of the time
my towns a Jubilee town
there are only two in the world
they say we will get one this summer
it ain’t happened since I was a girl
we have more species of turtles than any other
place
and orchards rare
and pink dolphins out there and the songbirds
and monarchs migrate
Mississippi River
it’s
deep and buddy it’s wide
passes through 32 states through Canada
I think at least twice
“mound builders-indigenous ancestors say singing river is life”
I was reading up on strange facts about Pascagoula-
oddities they like to brag:
one is about two men who went fishing out in the river at night - they say giant crab like creatures took them for a ride - lobster aliens with big long claws- in a spaceship up to the sky- it happened in 1973 - at the po’ lease station they cried
they sounded distraught on the audio
when the cops had ‘em
hip-no-tired
nobody really believed them but the story they told survived
and then sometime in the sixties a fella’ made headlines there
sneaking into women’s bedrooms
to cut off a lock of their hair
I’m thinking what kind of Nembutal cocktail
knocked those women out like a light
maybe he was a weird Casanova loved up blondes and brunesses
no good husbands a blight
the story that struck me the most was clearly romanticized
it does not line up with cosmology or the stories
I’ve heard
in my time
it’s a Romeo Juliet tale totally anglicized
the chief of the Pascagoulas
in love with
a young
Buh-lux-e queen
(Already suspect and stupid - Natives don’t have
royal-tee)
when the families went to war
her people outnumbered held hands
marched into the river
en masse
a big suicide
they planned
and it’s because of their
death chant you hear
river
humming
sometimes
I’m going to say you can’t
I call bullshit
I say it’s a
bald face lie
the “vanishing Indian” story
cover up our
genocide
choosing death over fighting
to stay alive
a-made-up tourist myth
it doesn’t speak to those of us still here
to sovereignty or resilience
I can’t take the tropes they invent
and
for those of you who read me
regularly
you knew it would come to this
I’m never to far from myself
that’s the way that it is and it is
but
I’m going to Pascagoula
my daughter wants to get out
get some Tupelo honey
and shells
it’s only a hop skip and jump
but
I’ll bring back a story to tell
(Two links below for context ya know)
Wow, Jolene! Incredible writing. Vivid.