Eli Green

By Jack Rafferty

 

    He stole the white man’s gold tooth

    He knocked it out with a two-by-four

    He rode the moon-blind horse

    He threw snake eyes in his sleep

    Frank Stanford, The Blood Brothers

 

I walked a long ways from the road

in Holly Springs, Mississippi

somewhat near the Tennessee border

till I came upon a shack

hidden in them dense trees

all dark green and shifting-like

I hollared and there

warn’t a reply no sound or nothin

so I walked on up to it and looked inside

and it was dark as a recently turned sod of turf

 

the door was open so I stepped in

the air smelled like many a living and dying creature

I looked around and still nothin it was bare

no furniture no anything

as quiet as an empty room

removed from time can be

 

then a voice spoke up

and it seemed to come from all over

and I must’a turned paler’n a winter sky

I turned round and at first saw nothin

then looked again and barely made out

a figure in the corner

 

like contours of a deeper shadow

folded into barriers of another

it sat there motionless and unspeaking

so finally I muttered who are you

and he just cackled a laugh 

that was filled with smoke and dust

then pulled out a deck of cards

and threw ‘em in the air

 

they rose up and stuck to the ceiling

he called out the king of hearts

a card fell and he snatched it from the air

he threw it down and it was the king and he

plunged his knife in it and it bled out onto the floor

as he did so he came into the light

 

he wore an immaculate black suit

and polished black shoes

his limbs navigated the dark

like water moccasins

the whites of his eyes hung in the shadow

like the bellies of fish

again I said who are you

he shook his head at this then looked out the window

 

for a while nothin happened like he was in a trance

when he spoke his breath smelled like a dead river

his words were like bleeding arteries in the air

he said when I was here last

I was called Eli Green

 

he paused a moment then took a step closer

he reached in his pocket and held out a small man

the small man danced on his palm

he said if ever I get locked up

this one steals the keys

then he went to the door and said le’s go

 

I followed and we walked back to the road

then down it a ways

till we come to a small cafe

we opened the door and stepped inside

but no one looked

 

he pulled out Charlie Patton’s guitar

don’t know where from

he started playing Bull Dog Blues

and the men got up and emptied they pockets

and the women danced with they dresses above they heads

 

and I said what if the pigs come

to which he just replied I got a bone le’s me walk

through walls

got it cause I boiled a living cat

 

then he said nuff of this we got to go back

and get my amulet

I asked what amulet

he replied my amulet of power

…lost it

 

before we left he went up to the ceiling

unscrewed the lightbulb there

and ate it slowly

he turned to me and said I’ll meet you

in the place that you don’t know I am

and vanished

 

I walked back up the road through the woods

back to the shack but it was empty 

 

I stayed a while till it got dark 

the dissonant chorus of myriad crickets

filled the barren room

and all pulsed with momentary 

forgotten agony

 

so I wandered back to the road

and passed the cemetery by the church

I saw Eli there

he took the form of an old wolf

 

he was playin dice with the dead 

using his unmarked grave as a spot for the bets

the branches swayed in the wind like wasps

Junior Kimbrough was beside him

as a seven hundred pound black bear

and Fred McDowell some strange reptile 

I spoke and all looked my way

a great silence

 

Eli merely looked down for a moment

at the amulet on his chest

then turned to me

behold,

this old earth

 

just then a car rounded the corner 

they all vanished 

as the headlights cut the dark

the tires hissed along the gravel 

and were gone

all was quiet as snow-smothered pines

on a nearby branch a mantis 

snatches and devours a smaller creature

I sat and wondered

about many things