REID MITCHELL is a New Orleanian teaching in China. More specifically, he is a Scholar in Jiangsu Province’s 100 Foreign Talents Program, and a Professor of English at Yancheng Teachers University. He is also Consulting Editor of CHA: AN ASIAN LITERARY JOURNAL. His poems have been published by CHA, ASIA LITERARY REVIEW, IN POSSE, and elsewhere. His first collection, SELL YOUR BONES, was published by Berlin’s PalmArtPress. Way back in the 20th century, he published the novel A MAN UNDER AUTHORITY. He also had a separate career as an historian of the American Civil War.
Hank Williams
And The Whipperwills
Whisper “Sweet Darlin’,
Go To Sleep,
Good Night”
I know those painted black steel
stairs you ascend, high heels
dangling in your weary hand
I have seen the noir seams
of your laddered stockings
gone crooked
the swelling of your calves
the tilt of your razor-edged skirt
the way your left hand lifts
your bob cut black hair
from where it kisses the nape
of your muscular, tango neck
the naked, screwed-in bulb
flickering yellow messages
into Morse Code for ghosts
trying to try not to give up, at least
not this particular whipperwill night
not with Hank Williams watching
from heaven