The Heneverleavesmissouri Poem

(for Richard Brautigan)

Because you never leave Missouri,
stuck in the mud,
on the banks of the Mississippi,
it's not hard to think of you
as the state map:
with your gorgeous blue eyes
in Kansas City and Saint Louis,
sticking your lobbyist nose
in the mess in Jefferson City
and your crooked smile
stretching from Springfield
to Cape Girardeau.