Last Call by David Lee Page B

Horse”
    Clover, a Literary Rag,
Volume 4, Winter 2012: “Monroe”
    Clover, a Literary Rag,
Volume 4, Summer, 2013: “Substitute Teacher”
    Cutthroat:
“San Antonio Incident,” “Eloise Ann”
    Paddlefish 2012,
Number 6: “The Monument to the South Plains Series”
    Paddlefish 2013
, Number 7: “Driving Solo,” “What They Say,” “From the Pickup Cab”
    â€œHigher Authority,” “Lost in Translation,” “Jacks,” and “The closing Sequence: Idyll, Oil Well Fire and Last Call” originally appeared in
Narrative Magazine
.
    An earlier version of “E. U. Washburn’s Story: Uncle Abe” appeared in
Covenants
(with William Kloefkorn), Spoon river Poetry Press.
    An earlier version of “Pain” appeared in
Day’s Work
, Copper Canyon Press.
    An earlier version of “The Oil Well Fire” was a part of the long-poem
Driving and Drinking
, Copper Canyon Press.
    For patient, thoughtful, wonderful bordering on the magnificent readings, suggestions, encouragement, and critical reactions to this manuscript that went light years above and beyond the call of duty or friendship, copious thanks to Eleanor Wilner, a goddess incarnate; my great friends Michael Donovan and Rob Van Wagoner, who I claim as hermanos; Jon and JoDee, who have grown to be both kith and kin; the Boulder, Utah wild bunch, who tolerated my insistence on their being my first audience to hear these poems for four years; and especially Rita Jean, who stayed with me all the way both in the caressing and goading modes on this one.

About the Author
    D avid Lee was raised in West Texas, a background he has never completely escaped, despite his varied experiences as a seminary student, a boxer and semi-pro baseball player (the only white player to ever play for the Negro League Post Texas Blue Stars) known for his knuckleball, a hog farmer, and a decorated Army veteran. Along the way he earned a Ph.D., taught at various universities, and recently retired as the Chairman of the Department of Language and Literature at Southern Utah University.
    Lee was named Utah’s first Poet Laureate in 1997, and has received both the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Award in Poetry and the Western States Book Award in Poetry. Lee received the Utah Governor’s Award for lifetime achievement in the arts and was listed among Utah’s top twelve writers of all time by the Utah Endowment for the Humanities. He is the author of twenty books of poetry. In 2004,
So Quietly the Earth
was selected for the New York Public Library’s annual “Books to Remember” list. His latest, a joint collection with the late poet William Kloefkorn, is
Moments of Delicate Balance
(Wings Press, 2011).

W ings Press was founded in 1975 by Joanie Whitebird and Joseph F. Lomax, both deceased, as “an informal association of artists and cultural mythologists dedicated to the preservation of the literature of the nation of Texas.” Publisher, editor and designer since 1995, Bryce Milligan is honored to carry on and expand that mission to include the finest in American writing— meaning all of the Americas, without commercial considerations clouding the choice to publish or not to publish.
    Wings Press produces multicultural books, chapbooks, ebooks, CDs, and broadsides that, we hope, enlighten the human spirit and enliven the mind. Everyone ever associated with Wings has been or is a writer, and we believe that writing is a transformational art form capable of changing the world, primarily by allowing us to glimpse something of each other’s souls. Good writing is innovative, insightful, open-minded and interesting. But most of all it is honest.
    Likewise, Wings Press is committed to treating the planet as a partner. Thus the press uses as much recycled material as possible, from the paper on which the books are printed to the boxes in which they are shipped.
    As