The Company We Keep

The Company We Keep


I chatted with a shrunken head
A day or two ago
He asked me for a lift downtown
“I haven’t far to go.”

He wasn’t very chatty then
But said his name was Joe
I understood his silence
He teetered to-and-fro

I worried on the drive with him
I drove my car quite slow
The seatbelt wouldn’t hold him in
A stop would forward throw

I wondered as I drove along
How did he end up so
Please tell me how you lost your “bod”
I’m curious to know

He didn’t speak for quite some time
I thought I’d sealed the flow
“Since you helped I’ll tell you some
The tale as quid pro quo”

It is a story that is strange
As if written by Old Poe
I stayed out late one night it was
Where no man should go

You see there were these cannibals
Who lived just down the row
They asked me to dine in one night
To their table I would go

My friends they all did warn me
to that invite be slow
I disregarded their strong words
From the invite I did show

It didn’t take that long to see
I wouldn’t leave, “Oh no!”
My head removed by one swift chop
With a plain garden hoe

I was saddened long after that
When I did come to know
For never in my life again
Would I have a big toe

Sometimes a lesson’s hard to learn
Advice away we throw
When ignoring wisdom, then
Regrets shall we sow

I enjoyed his story much
I kinda’ liked that Joe
And when he rolled out of the car
Was hard to watch him go


Ken Goree

I have no idea what triggered this poem ... I take it back.  The last part of the movie Beetlejuice popped into my head, the part where the witch doctor gets mad at Beetlejuice and shrinks his head.