Joe Meets the Skunk Ape

Joe worked the lines out in the country
And he drove that old swamp road
Deep down inside old Florida
Down where the old gators lay

He had laughed at all the stories
Of the Seminoles and their Skunk Ape
But Joe doesn’t laugh anymore
He doesn’t see things the same

His truck was parked beside the road
He was twenty feet up a pole
When he smelled an awful stench
And heard a rustling in the brush

It was something big and dark he says
Crashing through that sawgrass
It paused on the shoulder
And took a good look at Joe.

It was fifty yards away then
This unknown upright beast
It was covered in thick brown fur
But moved a lot like a man

It stood there staring at Joe on that pole
Just for a second or two
And then disappeared into the sawgrass
Left Joe wondering what to do

Like that woman in Myakka
Joe’s not sure just what it was he saw
But he swears that he saw something
And it was not a bear.

I know Joe has a sense of humor
But he is an honest man
And he didn’t really want to tell me
That he saw that Hairy Man