Endless

Welcome to Grand Central Station, Iowa

Endless

Today I asked my mother
How many parties do you think we’ve had here?
And she said, well, we’ve had one every New Year’s Eve
Even the one when friends had to crawl through the window to come in
Peppered beef, cribbage hands, skillet popcorn, Wild Turkey
Somehow they knew the words to Auld Lang Syne
Even those years the well was dry

There were forty-five of them
New Year’s Eve parties, not friends

As for friends
I lost count

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The well really did run dry a few times back then, back before we drilled a new one and later got rural water lines. On New Year’s Eve, the guys peed out in the yard on frozen snow.

When the well water was a problem, Mom used to say, “If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down.”

It wasn’t metaphorical, and yet somehow …

Coda