Red Skins
After a couple hours dangling
feet kicking in the water
I could feel the burn starting
to set in
Jane and I had driven a long
way to get a sunburn
Well, Jane had driven while
I sipped on beer twelve hours
on the other side of the car
once we were half way
I cracked one for her
Choke Canyon State Park
Apparently Jane used to go
to the park during the summer
with her parents
She said the first time she kissed
a boy was in Choke Canyon
Same place she kissed a girl
for the first time
her first awful hand job
learned to play washers
skinny dipped, ate barbacoa
smoked a joint and later
learned it was only tobacco
and oregano
That was a long time ago
now I was a boy in Choke
Canyon looking for a sunburn
She had a "special spot"
nothing the tourists could see
six miles of dusty clouds
like a crop plane down
dirt roads off
the highway
I pulled the cooler across hot
sand crunching prints
as if it were fresh snow
and found a little shelf
a foot and a half above the
water
I took off my boots and piled
my jeans, pearl snap, and v-neck
on top of them. Jane behind me
undressing like a lady
She sat beside me and put out
her finger with a butterfly resting
on it and said, "Does he have friends?"
"Not any more", I told her
I'd be surprised if he ever did
"I wonder how he drinks."
I pinched his wings together
gently and turned it over
I pointed towards his head
for twenty minutes
we let him go and he walked
awkwardly away from the water
Jane reached in the cooler
twisted off two more
she handed me one
then she pulled out a bag
baby carrots and a bottle
of ranch dressing she
must have smuggled in
She grinned,
"I'm starting to feel it."
What, the beer?
"No, silly. The burn."
I stood, pulled my shorts off
Me too, baby
Care for a swim?
The Weak Seem
A writer can't pick when
he writes, but he knows
damn well not to use words
like "can't" in his poem
The editors hate that
shit
God, Blow Me
You feel the plant is blowing up
chemical palace only blocks away
as it did 5 or 6 years ago
shake it up, quite the scare
Sounding like the trash bins
in front of the house blew over
I went to look wearing my shorts
undershirt and socks and heard
another blast
It was 4 in the morning so I shook
the girl awake and told her
"The chemical plant is blowing up!
Let's walk to the end of the block
and look at it. Grab a couple beers."
That hangover was put to rest by dinner
14 hours later
Explosions have a way about them
to stick around in the back
of a mind cluttered
left-overs from a moving sale
The next was only thunder
checking the radar on the typing machine
God's plan was to wrap his green hands
around the whole fucking town
and bite the head off
his dotted red eyeballs
getting hotter with friction
agitated with mankind
Impatient like an overweight
child waiting in the snack line
at the movies
getting hotter with friction
agitated with mankind
Impatient like an overweight
child waiting in the snack line
at the movies
It was coming for me, He was
and taking the rest
of the town too
I do the Lord's work
in ways neither one of us
can understand; forced
of nature
of nature
I thought:
This is my final goodbye and it isn't
worth a goddam pile of shit or salt
With any luck, He'll take the computer
with the house and leave me
the shit-eating cats shaking
in terror under a mattress, me
clutching at a flashlight
and a half a case of beer
Wrap your arms, God
keep the people guessing
I'll do the same
with my case of beer.
You can have the wine
but mention me to Moses
perhaps a speech; a toast
Talk to that charred sunbitch
about my grandfather
maybe say a few good words
if that's the best you can do
and if these are the last words
I ever write, I want you to
blow me
away
