(no subject)
newest draft:
this story begins with a border crossing thirsty
follows animal trails through the Saguaros of
Tucson, Arizona gets lucky and Greyhounds
through the wind chills and volcanic edges of
Flagstaff, Arizona, Grand Canyon deep
beneath a transparent night sky that shows
the Milky Way sleeping across salt-shaken stars
south to the arid open-aired Phoenix, Arizona
sky glow growing upward into the smoky quartz-
colored quilt of TV satellite dream-catchers
this story is about a dream bloated with local
news feed police helicopter search lights Hispanic
neighborhoods 99-cent stores thrift stores cut drugs
pornographically tight-knit bus stops. stop.
introduce this fourth grader smiling toothless
place him ahead of other runaway children and
behind these five tweakers. he eats from a package
of crackers standing on cigarette butt soapbox
with baseball cap and little backpack. they cackle,
“white boy got a cracker” they cackle through meatloaf
teeth nicotine yellow drunk urine eyes molasses faces
grease stain shoes soiled hoodies step backwards
introduce a 19-year-old boy, eyes glazed-over
shipwrecked. arrested for shoplifting tomorrow because
he says, “today’s too much,” then flash: his father’s
right-wing poker face. flash: his trophy mother’s
surgical dimples. flash: his two-million-dollar
three-story house smile from the Ahwatukee
Foothills grins and blames whoever it was
that brought to the party his attitude an 8-ball of coke
snorted ecstasy making love all those vodka shots
forgotten through every joint and his now-pregnant
girlfriend nicknamed, “Till Death Do We Part”
by her sarcastic parents
introduce Impatience (that’s her real name), she’s
forever too young, living a good unlucky prom night
distance away from her denial and out of control,
over the backyard fence there he stands,
calls himself both, “I dunno,” and, “whatever,”
and has unprotected she-loves-me-not sex for
over a month, fucking Impatience till she
forgets how to remember
introduce Ethnicity, a guardian angel from behind
Impatience says, “times like those I call out-of-
body experiences,” and she points to the green flames
trailing way behind her, passing over Mesa, Arizona’s
Latter-Day Saints steeples stabbing the blue sky,
over Food City home-cooked tamales and never
a Polaroid moment, following suburbia southwest
to the town of Guadalupe, Arizona
where the green flames originated, where Ethnicity
opened her wrists with blades of turquoise
bleeding Bisbee, Arizona copper and lighting it
on fire leaving behind methamphetamine suicides
deserted junkyards stray dogs population density
crime the freshest of foods a 100-year-old culture, no . . .
back in 2002 at a warehouse a few miles to the
northwest gathered west coast and southwest
b-boys DJ turntablists local gothic multiracial
contortionists in makeup
a crew called, “Slick on the Monkey Bars,” another
called, “Circus Runaways,” and b-boys nicknamed:
Scarecrow Nomak Krazy Kujo Sundance that scribble
legs graffiti like optical illusions against the backdrp
of vinyl choruses like tape recorder fast-forward buttons
turned HIT!
the doctor, a.k.a. god, with his all-seeing horsefly eyes
stands atop the Colorado Plateau and observes
this entire spectacle. he looks over the Mogollon Rim
as Nogales, Arizona becomes New Orleans
Indian Reservations turn into Vegas, and Tempe, Arizona
settles into a faint echo of New York, New York
he throws in some last words and says, “find a religion,
but enter it carrying a vaccine. start the Church of Yesterday
to worship our history. head south to rebuild the border
into a line of gallon water jugs, to give freedom a chance
because y’all this is Arizona, Arizona”
this story begins with a border crossing thirsty
follows animal trails through the Saguaros of
Tucson, Arizona gets lucky and Greyhounds
through the wind chills and volcanic edges of
Flagstaff, Arizona, Grand Canyon deep
beneath a transparent night sky that shows
the Milky Way sleeping across salt-shaken stars
south to the arid open-aired Phoenix, Arizona
sky glow growing upward into the smoky quartz-
colored quilt of TV satellite dream-catchers
this story is about a dream bloated with local
news feed police helicopter search lights Hispanic
neighborhoods 99-cent stores thrift stores cut drugs
pornographically tight-knit bus stops. stop.
introduce this fourth grader smiling toothless
place him ahead of other runaway children and
behind these five tweakers. he eats from a package
of crackers standing on cigarette butt soapbox
with baseball cap and little backpack. they cackle,
“white boy got a cracker” they cackle through meatloaf
teeth nicotine yellow drunk urine eyes molasses faces
grease stain shoes soiled hoodies step backwards
introduce a 19-year-old boy, eyes glazed-over
shipwrecked. arrested for shoplifting tomorrow because
he says, “today’s too much,” then flash: his father’s
right-wing poker face. flash: his trophy mother’s
surgical dimples. flash: his two-million-dollar
three-story house smile from the Ahwatukee
Foothills grins and blames whoever it was
that brought to the party his attitude an 8-ball of coke
snorted ecstasy making love all those vodka shots
forgotten through every joint and his now-pregnant
girlfriend nicknamed, “Till Death Do We Part”
by her sarcastic parents
introduce Impatience (that’s her real name), she’s
forever too young, living a good unlucky prom night
distance away from her denial and out of control,
over the backyard fence there he stands,
calls himself both, “I dunno,” and, “whatever,”
and has unprotected she-loves-me-not sex for
over a month, fucking Impatience till she
forgets how to remember
introduce Ethnicity, a guardian angel from behind
Impatience says, “times like those I call out-of-
body experiences,” and she points to the green flames
trailing way behind her, passing over Mesa, Arizona’s
Latter-Day Saints steeples stabbing the blue sky,
over Food City home-cooked tamales and never
a Polaroid moment, following suburbia southwest
to the town of Guadalupe, Arizona
where the green flames originated, where Ethnicity
opened her wrists with blades of turquoise
bleeding Bisbee, Arizona copper and lighting it
on fire leaving behind methamphetamine suicides
deserted junkyards stray dogs population density
crime the freshest of foods a 100-year-old culture, no . . .
back in 2002 at a warehouse a few miles to the
northwest gathered west coast and southwest
b-boys DJ turntablists local gothic multiracial
contortionists in makeup
a crew called, “Slick on the Monkey Bars,” another
called, “Circus Runaways,” and b-boys nicknamed:
Scarecrow Nomak Krazy Kujo Sundance that scribble
legs graffiti like optical illusions against the backdrp
of vinyl choruses like tape recorder fast-forward buttons
turned HIT!
the doctor, a.k.a. god, with his all-seeing horsefly eyes
stands atop the Colorado Plateau and observes
this entire spectacle. he looks over the Mogollon Rim
as Nogales, Arizona becomes New Orleans
Indian Reservations turn into Vegas, and Tempe, Arizona
settles into a faint echo of New York, New York
he throws in some last words and says, “find a religion,
but enter it carrying a vaccine. start the Church of Yesterday
to worship our history. head south to rebuild the border
into a line of gallon water jugs, to give freedom a chance
because y’all this is Arizona, Arizona”