Morristown, Tennessee
where the Hawaiian-shirted man
with receding gray hair
hands a cigarette to a young woman
in a Misfits t-shirt
there’s a black transvestite on a bench
swapping road stories
with a middle-aged white woman
cough shaking her Pepsi shirt
she’s headed for Arizona
a former pastor’s wife
(I did it for three years
can’t take it no more
that’s why I’m crazy now)
is hauling her three kids
home to Memphis
an old man with a twisted hand
leans his head toward the pavement
smokes and stares at the pristine white socks
poking out of his dirty work boots
there’s a little person
(or a teenaged boy who’s seen too much)
wearing a black shirt with a smiling grim reaper
he hugs two young children on the sidewalk
the bus driver
— tall, prim, bald —
brought a bag of dog treats
all the way from Virginia
for the two terriers who live at the station
he turns away, smiling
this bootleg bus station
is run by an elderly couple
man in red suspenders
with carefully matched trucker cap
squat woman in an oversize shirt
that’s what there was to see
this June afternoon
in Morristown, Tennessee
16 June 2012
Morristown, TN
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