DALTON AMES

Keith Vaughan 1912-1977
Study for Laocoön, c.1964

Dalton Ames
_____________________________

“listen no good taking
it so hard its not your
fault kid it would have
been some other fellow”
—William Faulkner,
The Sound and the Fury

And Dalton wasn’t—
Talkin’ about Caddy either
It was me got laid.

I kissed him back hard—
His lips were thin, hard, cruel
I fainted again.

Back there at Harvard—
Late at night in bed with Shreve
Fainting in his arms.

Pretending Shreve was—
Dalton Ames back then over
The Tallahatchie.

Shreve was like Dalton—
He didn’t waste any time
He knew me real good.

He knew me better—
Than I knew myself back then
Who I really was…