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