Crawfish

Bleached and blasted sun-shocked days
Along the rusted rails of home
I stumbled picking steps half-hearted
Counting countless ties along
The way to work

Living in my grandma's house
Slipping past my mother's home
The back way unseen by my neighbors
Laughing crawdad memories rise
Up from the drainage ditch

Propelling retrograde escaping
Safe within the muddy muck
Baked in clay not making movement
Shudder at passing locomotives
They sleep awaiting rain.