UNCLE BUCK & UNCLE BILLY

Amodeus and Theophilus McCaslin

Uncle Buck & Uncle Billy

"The two houses

had become

interchangeable"

—William Faulkner,

Go Down, Moses

.

Once upon a time—
What “was” in Go Down Moses
Suddenly became “is.”

Rowan Oaks be dark—
And Faulkner be broke again
Needed money bad.

He be “Snakes Eyes” Snopes—
Assuming once again the
Disguise of Popeye.

Which is how he wrote—
Sanctuary drunk back then
When he be like “broke.”

_____________________________

It be amazing—
What a man can do if he
Has to do something.

Pulp fiction novels—
Taking a plane to accept
Some old Nobel Prize.

Once upon a time—
“Was” was really “Almost”
And then became “is.”

“Now” him sitting there—
At his desk some humid night
Conversing with “them.”

_______________________________

Buck & Billy be—
His McCaslin diplomats
From dark Delta Dis.

It be them not him—
Who's the Narrative voice

As he enters it.

Whatever it was—
Whatever it wants to be
It's like Benjy “is.”

It’s that kind of “was”—
Stream of conscious “now”
That overcomes him.

__________________________

Buck & Billy be—
The Delta storytellers
Who tell the story.

But first he has to—
Get rid of himself back then
“Disenthrall” himself.

Isn't that what Lincoln—
Said back then at Gettysburg
“Disenthrall ourselves…” ???

Like Benjy Compson—
Child-idiot character
In that room that night?

__________________________

Not just “cut & paste”—
But redo the whole goddamn
Thing with them again.

Which is what he does—
Playing poker with himself
& Miss Sophonsiba.

Does a writer have—
To be so 'polyvocally
Perverse' about things?

Pretending to be—
Southern, black & mulatto
For Go Down Moses?

______________________________

“He reached out and
tilted the lamp-shade,
the light moving up
Tomey’s Turl’s arms
that were supposed
to be black but were
not quite either”
—William Faulkner,
Go Down, Moses

Amodeus be—
A whole lot smarter than
His brother Buck was.

It took brains to cook—
And play a game of poker
That’s for sure, my dear.

Amodeus be—
Brave as well during the war
When he went to fight.

It wasn’t pretty—
All the maimed, butchered youth
During the damn war

_________________________

Theophilus be—
Kinda butchy dontchaknow
Like some Southern men.

Others be more fem—
Much more refined & genteel
Like Scarlett O’Hara?

Miss Sophonsiba—
Swishing, janglin’ down the stairs
Her maid fanning her.

At one time she’d been—
A fine-lookin’ Southern bell.
But now, forget it.

_____________________________

So the cards are dealt—
Tennie ends up at McCaslin’s
Place with Tomey’s Turl.

Buck ends up married—
To Miss Sophonsiba &
That’s how Ike gets born.

Mr. Hubert freed from—
Miss Sibbey his sister
The poker game ends...

That’s how “was” became—
“Then” & that’s how “Now”
Became known as “is.”