Tucson
we sit in Ron's van parked next to an elementary school to do
the deal it somehow seems symbolic he has driven out from CA 1/2
lb of pure Peruvian rock I don't like cocaine but this is super
Paul & I each get an oz the rest we will sell we are going
on a road trip taking Melody she's eight months preggers going
back to her parents in Wisconsin to have the child she conceived
in my borrowed bed she's my roommate the father a guy from Alaska
in the living room I am with a gymnast she puts two chairs four
feet apart stands one foot on each dances on my cock a crazed
marionette only our parts touching we make a lot of noise she's
screaming "Oh Baby!" for some reason I'm laughing hysterically
now I've got her from behind she's walking on her hands I'm holding
her legs like a wheel barrow we are crashing into things then
on her back she's double jointed puts each ankle behind her head
smiles up at me I'm goring her a bull a unihorn "Oh Baby!"
skimming across the carpet Mr Alaska cracks a joke sez we are
Harmony & she is Melody we all seem to come together he goes
back to Alaska leaving Melody knocked-up Harmony the gymnast gives
me a dose of clap they put this swab on a wooden stick down my
urethra it's like every torture in Hell combined
Austin
our first stop is Austin, TX Paul knows a coed
he met at Vanderbilt we stay at her parent's house her father
is a Federal judge we sit down to a formal family dinner Hiz Honor
has a lively conversation w/his coke-bright guests then Paul goes
upstairs to do some lines & fuck his daughter while I hang
out w/her best friend looks like Marilyn Monroe an English major
she has read Thomas Pynchon we talk for hours about Gravity's
Rainbow I drive her crazy playing the same Leonard Cohen album
over & over we hear good live music sell coke to the coed's
friends talk some more w/the judge when he retires he's going
to get the Coors franchise we agree that this will make him rich
then it's off to Columbus, Ohio there are other daughters there
in need of our services
Little
Rock
Paul & Melody seem to be having this thing I guess that's
why he let me drive they are curled-up in the back seat Paul is
taking this cocaine dealing seriously cause well his father got
in trouble in Boston, gambling trouble he's hiding out in Redondo
Beach, CA left Paul's mother too for good measure gave Paul a
bunch of money to keep he came out to Tucson we went to Phoenix
Paul ended-up w/a gun stuck to his head they told him to run he
sure did then later that night my car blows-up on I-10 near Sky
Harbor burning in the 100 degree night someone from a nearby house
throwing rocks at us this is the last of the money Paul needs
to earn it back we drive north through Arkansas, Memphis, Nashville
then up through Kentucky & Cincinnati I drive the whole way
no stopping just piss in a bottle
Columbus
roll into Columbus we are staying at Rick, Bob &
Norm's place in a neighborhood called Fly Town upstairs in a huge
old house big porch among the trees Rick works at a mental hospital
criminally insane, geriatrics every week he washes down crazy
old murderers w/a high powered hose Bob works at Lararus, a department
store & wears a tie Norm is getting a doctorate in Sociology
at Ohio State it's a bachelor place there are porno mags in the
bathroom & nothing but beer in the frig Kevin arrives from
Utah he has some pot cut w/dog tranquilizer we smoke it go to
lunch everything is clipped muted cropped badly colors faded we
pass an accident on High Street there is a dead body lying in
the street head next to a dark pool of blood a bucket of blood
we eat pork chops w/Rolling Rock & whiskey a party that night
Norm introduces me to his friend Eve he sez they're just friends
she's saving herself or sumthing seeing her is like a bolt of
lightning passing through me we are sitting together in the back
of Norm's car I'm walking on eggs she's so lovely bright green
eyes at the party we're lost in each other "let's go somewhere
quiet" I say we go to an empty bedroom snort the last of
my stash we sit in the dark & kiss for hours for centuries
I'm lost in her generous mouth her lips suck sealed tongues teeth
clashing she won't do more "I want to ... if you stayed ...
moved here ... I would ... but tomorrow you leave ... I can't
do that" I understand kissing her just kissing is almost,
almost better
Indianapolis
next day Paul & Melody head on to Milwaukee
I get a ride from Ed, Bob's brother, a trucker he's taking a load
of office furniture to Denver we are pretty hung over leave late
don't get far a truck stop west of Indianapolis acres & acres
of trucks parked engines idling we are relaxing there are women
moving from truck to truck "ya wanna date?" they call
"wanna date?" asks Ed pointing to his tiny apartment
in the back of the cab what a host I think of that dose: "no
thanks" outside fireflies in the distant cornfields bugs
pinging against the windshield America groans in her loneliness
truckers fuck in the night
Denver
Kansas City then into Denver at dawn the Rocky Mountains rising
red & gold over endless plains God I love the West I help
Ed unload then he lets me off at friends Paul & Sue but first
I have to call Terri a woman I met when I was w/Paul in Mexico
we met her & her friend Sue in Mazatlan, then again in San
Blas, arranged to meet in Guadalajara where we all dropped acid
went to the Ballet Folklorico wandered all night cathedrals like
great hollow skulls dead Aztec kings eyes blank to the stars then
back to our rooms where she blew me in the rip rap street noise
of the emerging Mexican dawn again in Oaxáca a tiny comida dirt
dry fountain Indian women from the market wrapped in plastic sleeping
on our doorstep she convulsing under me it was then she tells
me she is married I'm in Denver to steal her coming off the cocaine
warm glow an attestment to it's quality I go to her apartment
not a good side of town I meet her husband a painter a poor artist
he is all beat-up has gotten mugged last night things are a bit
tense he goes off drinking the look of agony on his face what
has she told him? poor bastard I can't do this leave, the next
day she spends w/me that night at Paul & Sue's they don't
approve go to bed we are alone kissing I'm stroking her breasts
she sez "if you stayed, lived here I wld't be able to help
myself" I think of her husband's haunted eyes hold back
Gray
Dog
next morning I'm sitting waiting for a bus to Tucson w/a hard-on
tears streaming from my eyes my dear Melody whom I'll never see
again sitting on the floor by her bed rubbing oil onto her growing
breasts & belly, Eve I should go back to Columbus, buy a tie
work at Lararus marry her live forever for those lips have a dozen
kids but no, Terri run away w/her to Guatemala then south, ever
south Peru, Chile Antarctica ... no, it is back to Tucson, back
to all that has gone on, all that will become my fate there for
whatever ...
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