“Got some extra socks for Mr. Kellman?
He’s cold and the other renters are gone.
I don’t like to go into their rooms,” the landlady said.
“Sure, I have a pair,”
And I gave them to her, black socks.
She walked to the next room,
And went right in to give them to Mr. Kellman.
He was a dam builder – concrete lugger – and
Then a brush clearer, all in the Tennessee River Valley,
And now he was bed-bound in the rooming house,
Where the current dam builders and brush clearers lived.
They were not bed-bound.
They did not die the next day as Mr.Kellman did
In the chilly and windowless room next to my
Chilly and windowless room.
I never got the socks back,
And a week later a healthy dam builder
And brush clearer moved in ….
