A Crucifix for DeRidder

or The Governor of Ollie Street Returns

he came back at us
screaming, hollering
told us stories of something in his eyes
something peeping thru the deep
and dark of him

we didn't believe him
thought him a make-believe griot,
called him blind in one eye
stoned in the other, said he was a punch-drunk boxer
fighting ghosts

he wanted a sword in headlines
published the morning after

so he jumped from a window
like it was his life

his final cure a gravity
which killed him