Old man reads with greasy fingers
Coffee cup sweats on the rail
Mosquitoes hum like tired singers
Letter falls apart like mail
Soggy letter on the porch wood
Bayou swallowing the words
He don't cry like Hollywood
Just watches ink blur into birds
Stamp peeled off by swamp humidity
Address turned to watercolor gray
Thirty years of probability
Washed clean by the evening spray
Soggy letter on the porch wood
Bayou swallowing the words
He don't cry like Hollywood
Just watches ink blur into birds
Diner sign flickers behind him
Parking lot half-full tonight
Cook flips eggs on graveyard whim
Regulars complain and pull
Paper fibers surrender slow
To humidity and time
Nothing left but let it go
Dissolve in bayou slime
He folds the mush into his pocket
Walks back to the screen door
Crickets tune their nightly rocket
Kitchen smells of grease and more
Soggy letter on the porch wood
Bayou swallowing the words
He don't cry like Hollywood
Just watches ink blur into birds
Next shift starts at midnight sharp
He pours a cup black as tar
Reads the pulp inside his heart
Dry as dust beneath the bar
Soggy letter on the porch wood
Bayou swallowing the words
He don't cry like Hollywood
Just watches ink blur into birds Soggy letter understood
By the water and the herbs
Rain keeps falling on the porch
Bayou takes what paper gives
