A Hippie in Alabama, and: Why Am I Making This Noise

A Hippie in Alabama, and: Why Am I Making This Noise Rodney Jones (bio) A Hippie in Alabama Reading Tolstoy's Christian pacifist booksand a Rand McNally map of Canada,I had taken summer work, second shiftin a copper tubing factory, a posh job— I stood at a saw, tubes approached—chop chop—fat rings clinked in a bin. But like it was foldedin a book, the 6' 4" foreman on my shouldershouting "faster!" and Irv, the forklift guy, whispering, "Easy, honey. We do this all year."Driving home through cotton fieldsto write with careful urgency,in my journal: I was paralyzed in the dilemma. Some nights I see myself as Simone Veil.But I had made nearly a hundred dollars.When I learned the rings I cutwere obturating rings for mortar shells, I was horrified. I do not rememberwhen I learned, whoever told me. LikeWestmoreland, I counted bodies.30,000 times a night I mashed a button. End Page 139 Why Am I Making This Noise With this worm and this wordI am teachingMy starling to talkworm worm worm I am careful to enunciateEach wordAt the exact instantI drop the worm right In front of herJigging it for emphasisTo further demonstrateMy meaning But when she paysNo mind think noOf course I haveUpset her she is A vegetarian soI find a berry theyAre not hard to findAnd again I work With two propsOne berry one wordberry berry berryI spin it as I say it But again zeroWell I say well I willUp the registerStarlings are Very smart haveYou never heard themWinging togetherOver a cornfield End Page 140 Sometimes they willForm an hourglassPour through theNeck of the funnel And come outIn disparate squadsParallelogramsHexagons and Once in a light rainA parasol of starlingsBut all she doesIs flutter to the top Of a mulberryAnd fluff upMaybe I am notHer human but Listen close waitShe is saying achshe says ach achAnd though I have No langue d'ocI say it back ach ach achAnd as I say itI clack my sallow beak End Page 141 Rodney Jones A Pulitzer finalist and National Book Critics Circle Award winner, Rodney Jones lives in New Orleans. His eleventh book, Alabama, was published by Louisiana State University Press in their Southern Messenger Poetry Series in the fall of 2023. Copyright © 2024 The Conference on Christianity and Literature