<DIV><p><B>Growing up in Memphis, #3:</B></p><I><p>In 1952 Dewey Phillips invented Elvis.<BR>It happened on the radio.<br>Rock n' Roll saved my life.<br>In 1960 the bad guys sold Elvis into slavery.<BR>Don't let anybody tell you different.</p></I><p><B>This morning I made love with the lettuce picker:</B></p><I><p>Every year the lettuce picker plants her seeds in October.<BR>Lettuce loves this time of the year in the Chihuahua Desert.<BR>October passes and November comes.<BR>The lettuce grows leafy and happy.<BR>The lettuce picker slips out to the garden in the morning.</p></I><p>I will not tell you how old I am.<BR>I will not tell you how old she is.</p><I><p>But her legs are white, her rear end<BR>is clad in purple pajamas<BR>and is raised like a flag planted<BR>in the dirt<BR>for the preservation of love.<BR>Today is Sunday, the day of Sabbath.<BR>A day to remember ourselves.<BR>A day to worship all that is holy.<BR>This is what we do when we make love.</p></I><p>Poet, essayist, publisher, and ordained Zen priest <B>Bobby Byrd</B>, with his wife Lee, received the Lannan Fellowship for Cultural Freedom in 2006. He has published numerous books of poetry, most recently <I>White Panties, Dead Friends & Other Bits & Pieces of Love</I> (2006). With his son John Byrd, he is co-editor of <I>Puro Border: Dispatches, Graffiti and Snapshots from the U.S./Mexico Border</I> and the crime fiction anthology <I>Lone Star Noir</I> (Akashic Books).</p></DIV>