Bob Brussack is featured tonight at Word of Mouth, Athens, GA

Bob Brussack is a writer, photographer, and musician living in Athens, Georgia. He retired after a career teaching law at the University of Georgia. He will be tonight's featured reader at the monthly Word of Mouth event upstairs at The Globe, in Athens, GA. As poet Paul Potts once commented, “Surely anything worth saying twice is worth listening to once." The whirligig begins at 8 p.m. and listeners are advised to bring both ears. There's bound to be something to be worth hearing twice. ...

"Milner"

(Bob Brussack)

What good I do,

I do willy-nilly

And here and there,

Charity in the second degree,

Unpremed

itated —

Except at tax time.

But there are among us —

I know one —

Devil hunters,

Sworn assassins of sorrows,

Career soldiers

In a war against the

Fallenness of the world.

Some of these — most, I expect —

Were drafted to the brigades

By the awful gravity of suffering.

Others — the one I know —

Came to the cause impelled

Not just by heart’s imperative,

But by considered judgment.

Reason, for him, required a

Vigilant, constant, inventive charity.

One needn’t believe in God

To believe in angels.

"Let's Be Honest"

(Bob Brussack)

Let's be honest.

Let's be leprechauns

Or unicorns

Or the man in the moon.

Let's crack the sternum

And transect the honesty sac

And send the contents

To pathology for revelation.

Let's hold our breath

And dive beyond knowing

Into the authentic dark

And throw a tow line

Around honesty

And winch it to the surface.

Let's be honest

About the only thing

We can be honest about.