rlnimages

gone twenty years has the clock gone twenty years now? I never sought to drowse so long in this dispassionate bed where perpetual strangers meet, but the days held themselves aloof and the charms of stepping out were more elusive than the songs of staying put, despite the restless soulnights, relieved only by transient, craving dreams. my body lay in state these many years, passions pooled in muscle, and actions locked in bone, and as I stir now, I see even my writing hand grown cramped and stiff from countless resets of the alarm, and from so many frantic graspings at the same stylized dream. but what harm is it to sleep

Carlos the Bastard (composed on finding a personal letter discarded in a newspaper vending rack) Heart writ small On lined paper Carlos shared news from Priscilla with the street The weekly tabloid rack's display frame, not to be refilled 'til two days hence Could announce to all who stopped to read That things were ok That she went to Austin for a day with her aunt Maria about two weeks ago. That her cousin had her baby and she and the father had decided to call the child Ignacio. That the weather was so nice last Sunday that she and Anita had gone down to the riverwalk And she showed Anita that little shop where you