Sometimes it's so hot the thistle bends br to the morning dew and the limbs of trees br seem so weighted they won't hold up moss br anymore. The women sit and swell br with the backwash of old family pain br and won't leave the house to walk across br the neighbor's yard. One man takes up a shotgun br over the shit hosed from a pen of dogs. br One boy takes a fist of rings and slams the face br of a kid throwing shells at his car. br That shiny car is all the love his father br has to give. And his mother cooks br the best shrimp étouffée and every day br smokes three packs down to their mustard-colored ends. br br One night the finest woman I ever br knew pulled a cocktail waitress by the hair br out of the backseat of her husband's new br Eldorado Cadillac and knocked her br down between the cars at the Queen Bee Lounge. br She drove the man slumped and snoring with his hand br in his pants home and not a word was said. br I'll try to tell you what I know br about people who love each other br and the fear of losing that cuts a path br as wide as a tropical storm through the marsh br and gets closer each year br to falling at the foot of your door.