UNDERGROUND VOICES MAGAZINE/JONAS FERN DUNE


	UNDERGROUND VOICES: POETRY

JONAS FERN DUNE

Green Grass and High Tides Forever

Born to a drunken father
and a mother working two jobs to survive
She found her way to Interstate 84
Where the cars sped by
She stuck her thumb in the air
As she walked through the weeds
Can't nobody tell me
What I wasn't born to be

She learned back in '85
That there is no green grass and hide tides forever
When she told her daddy she wanted to be a doctor
He gulped his drink,
Slammed the glass against the sink
And with the stink of his Tequila Sunrise
He managed a grin,
And staggered, then with joy
He put his face in hers,
His rough hands tugging at her shirt,
He said,
"Hunny, The Money Tree is only an advertisement,
The only free money for girls like you
Comes from boys like me,"
He grabbed the seam of her jeans
A sea of dreams crashed against the shore,
A crow cawed, "Never more, Lenore, Never more"
Doctors come from white collar families
In some suburbia called Heaven
Good luck, Lenore
You're just high class white trash
Raised in the park across the street from the High School,
A nobody born in Nowhere Idaho
Another subtle tragedy
of the lower class' version of the American Dream

Lenore came home a few years after she run off,
Stayed with her friend Moss
Her mama was in jail for sellin' her body to a cop
Another sob story in the midst of the ranch exits and endless silos
She found herself again on the shoulder of the road
Hearin' the cows cry as they headed home
Across the street a saloon,
Where the farmer's go to drink beer and play poker
The juke box is singin' Willie Nelson through the open screen door
And its five more years down the toilet
Five more years of "Grit your teeth and bear it"

Lenore squandered thirty-thousand dollar bills
Tootin' gack with her mama
In a gutted trailer they bought with the first five thou
Daddy Dezzy died of liver disease
Mama said "Oh well, Good ridden"
I'd ask her, "Did you love him?"
No comment, another drip

Lenore died at thirty-eight, her mama outlived her by ten years
There in the valley of Emmett, Idaho
Green grass and high tides forever

Fern grew up on a farm in the Idaho desert. During her sophomore year in
high school she moved with her parents to live in Houston, Texas where she
currently resides. Her poetry is a combination of vivid imagery, history,
and anecdotes about life and love, ultimately resulting in an overall
feeling of spiritual awakening and enlightenment.