For Shelly and Darby
A fat copperhead
Jim found
in the basement
dangled limp
over barbed wire fence
where he stood tall
telling a story
about how the snake
coiled, hissed,
and then bit
at his huge, greasy shoes
when he piddled
in our damp basement
for tools to fix
his broken Barracuda
that sat on
cinderblocks
in Daddy’s shed.
Jim grinned reliving
his heroics,
With a pitchfork,
I ripped the head off
and shit down
its neck, I did!
Lifting it by the tail,
Jim showed me
how it stretched
from his toes to forehead.
He, a faithful family friend,
endured achy joints most days,
arthritic elbows swollen
like red grapefruits.
I was a young kid
to whom Jim became
a giant of a man
on an intense summer afternoon.
“Giant Jim” was first published in Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel (2018).
Poet, Pulaski Virginia
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