Paratexts for Skinny-Dippin’

Skinny-Dippin’ with Alligators is a comic narrative poem in Southern speech, more precisely “Texas Tawk” – a language I more or less forgot over the years.

The idea for it  came to me when I was thinking about travel, and in particular a poem by Horace which I had taught years ago. Homer and Virgil and Beatrice enter as character names, hence the spurious subtitle, a Redneck Odyssey. I wanted to write in the soft, swangy accent of my youth. 

I fiddled at a while till I realized I’d need some help. The proximity of my cousin Red Dog made me think he might help me speak like that again.

What they call in the movies plot, character, scenario – in all that we became a tag team.  The music is his. 

Parental guidance warning to the Ladies and the Gentlemen present who may not like having exposed out in public how they think and what they do. There is not a shred of political correctness herein.

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Three Chords and the Truth – The Songs of HubCap Brown / By Red Dog Young

Character Sketches

Additional Paratexts