Snakes
There is a snake that sheds his skin in the shed every year. I don’t ever see the snake but I see his skin and think too late to follow the advice of a man who once banged on the door before entering so the snake in the shed would not drop from the rafters onto his head. Which is a very frightening thing to have happen to you. It happened to me once and I screamed and screamed while dancing awkwardly something vaguely ritualistic looking if we surmise that there is a dance to keep snakes from your head. As it turned out the snake was just an extension cord but it was too late to turn off the fright by the time I realized that. To this day I still think of it as the day the snake fell on top of my head. Yesterday I called a man whom I have for awhile been thinking was dead, but he’s not. He is 90. He calls me Louis. I wanted to discuss some business regarding a piece of land he sold me 25 years ago but he misunderstood and thought I was trying to shake him down for money. It did not seem to matter that I even suggested giving him some money. To change the subject I asked him about his son and he said the son had broken his neck a couple of years ago. The man said there may have been crack cocaine involved. When I moved back to the subject of business he said, you know Louis, just now when you were asking about my boy I could understand every word you said but this other thing—I don’t know what you are talking about. I can’t hear a word of it. I hung up shortly after that and am now suffering some regret that this misunderstood conversation will likely be the last one we ever have. His wife will ask, what did Louis want? And he will say, oh that little bastard was trying to get my retirement fund out of me. How can what people think not be true?
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The Weatherman
In NYC I saw cotton growing among the flowers in buckets on Ave A coming back from a poetry reading at a gay bookstore where my friend read his new book in its entirety so we wouldn't have to.
A day later I sat idling at a bus stop waiting to be told I couldn't which I eventually was but I wasn't on my way to drop off a cancer cat for his eternity injection, which I could have been.
Two truck drivers, the one while I waited said to the man in who's way he was, fuck you, and the other one high above as we approached the light outside the Holland Tunnel seeing me the recent passenger eating a puppy dog ear sandwich with a kitten on my shoulder gushed on and on about the little kitten, although at first I thought he was talking about the sandwich, until we moved forward without saying so much as so long.
Now back in the country no noise or evidence of life if life is the teeming masses. But the rain drops drip loudly so we're getting that and boy did we need it even if it is a day late. It will get cold on Sunday and if you want to discuss that with me I would love to, I would really love to.
In NYC I saw cotton growing among the flowers in buckets on Ave A coming back from a poetry reading at a gay bookstore where my friend read his new book in its entirety so we wouldn't have to.
A day later I sat idling at a bus stop waiting to be told I couldn't which I eventually was but I wasn't on my way to drop off a cancer cat for his eternity injection, which I could have been.
Two truck drivers, the one while I waited said to the man in who's way he was, fuck you, and the other one high above as we approached the light outside the Holland Tunnel seeing me the recent passenger eating a puppy dog ear sandwich with a kitten on my shoulder gushed on and on about the little kitten, although at first I thought he was talking about the sandwich, until we moved forward without saying so much as so long.
Now back in the country no noise or evidence of life if life is the teeming masses. But the rain drops drip loudly so we're getting that and boy did we need it even if it is a day late. It will get cold on Sunday and if you want to discuss that with me I would love to, I would really love to.