on the couch.

i. curling up

Not much
to fix
a man's
attention.
It seems
the end
of the world
is coming
but then
again
it always
has been
ending
and we
each must
face it
individually
--in each
other's arms
if we're lucky.

look no further
than plain
animal warmth
of which
sex is but
gasoline
in the relative
fluidity
of love.

ii. heading out

How are you?

     "Finer than a frog
           half split in two,"
                             Kenny says.

Berry unable to pass out
       on the couch
   blows the lantern out
(candle in cut Gatorade
                             bottle)
and says he's ready
          for the revolution.

"Our home is your home,"
                              I offer.
     "No, it's not,"
               Berry states flatly.

So right and he knows it,
      Estacada High Class of '78,
no more dangerous
                than a chipmunk,
      to hear Kenny tell it.

Holy men,
     but more than mad,
unwhole
     and knowing
             there is no
                     wholeness
    but the absence
          awaiting us,
                the gap
                     in eternity
    we use our lives to plug.

Ben, Kenny, and Berry
      stagger off,
   stumbling drunk
   and proud of it,
      improvising a song:

          Fall lightly
          to minimize
          environmental
          impacts
...

and they laugh,
they laugh, they
laugh...

sep 30 2001
bagby hot spring, OR

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