Bisbee Extravaganza

The Map of Cars,
Mercury and Marquis

-And you follow 'till your sense of which
direction completely disappears

That was the labyrinth in the Gulch,
a hard right past the Philadelphia where
hash was the babysitting tutorial,
the only baby is in a jar, it is lifted.
Carmen and Peter and Jewish Jon ran off
while sister tailed along to see
some more of the avante guarde
on subway street. Can't remember
changing the baby but I must have arrived
to that engagement in the brougham.
Boy it seemed so big then and the cop
found it parked a week later
in front of St. Elmo's bar and grill

Do that again young lady and you'll get
fleeing arrest. What a thing!
and now it's small.

Fleeing arrest, no better way to describe that
glide down Youngblood with brakes tapping,
the sides of the alley scraping
just short of a decision: up to Zacatacas
or down to the Lyric. Bear up
in the canyon casting spells on the mons, mine
and several others, decision made down
to the bottom another hard right past
the grassy, past the flood-stained county
library up to the Baptist church where pies
never burned, zig-zag the castle rocks
wherein Bisbee Bob was dealing coke
from an old taco stand window
nearwhere the brakeman cracked
his victorian spine in the liffy-ditch then
up to the Ironman part of Cork, all those
serenity-prayer miners hacking in the echoes,
crawling just out of sight of the rectory,
slow enough to catch a whiff of the votives.
Another right but not so hard into garden
past the chihuahua across from our cousin's
which was empty except for the touching
we did under the ocatillo canopy near
the tunnel under the stairs and into the garage,
buried in the hill as it always was.
Up to Mayer to tuck that brougham in,
her tail end and they are all girls we said,
part of the celtic myth of deers, all the cars
are girls and you got away and pushed her
spine to the end of Laundryhill
and let her down easy while
the eight track hauled out the year of the cat.






Bisbee to Oprah



..and the best way to go down the hill: Coasters. Jack (my honest, decent brother) in the cap asking the kids what they'll do if they lose their brakes. Good old Jack.



Jack & Fish

Everything happened suddenly, Jack surprised.
Jack? Jack surprised. Jack handsome.
Jack in the front seat, Jack driving.
Jack like father, Jack like Grandfather.
Jack like all Jacks. Jack of all trades
and Jack of all exiles.
Jack of the St. Louis Arches.
Jack of hippy hiking across the land of Jacks.
Jack of Sailor Suits. Jack of smiles.
Jack. Just Jack that day and John,
somewhere else
smoking cigarettes perhaps
in the tent. How did she catch that?
Jack said. No one knew.
As big as her arm. As long as her pony.
Her two ponies, Apaloosa and Pinto.
The ones they all dream of at certain times.
Come here little fishes. She said come here
little fishes, big ones too. I'll get rid of you!
Or, I'll let you go, or you will get away.
But for now, I'll catch and pull you in.
Jack pulled it in. Jack slit the trouty guts
with his Jack Knife. Jack, just jack all over.