garberville.

[byronius]

candy dennis stole fourteen bucks out of my wallet
that's the price of a burger at the getti-up
when you leave your wallet behind
at the getti-up

not hooked in they are
nineteen-ninety three and nineteen seventy-nine
let's go down this street
they got a radio shack

walk past the hemp store
go back in buy a lost coast hemp hat
and a mr. natural patch for it
big glass pipes for sale
what are those for?

and he walked on down the hall
past the ooooooolllllllldddddddd guy on the porch
his nickname was toast
back in nineteen seventy-nine
he watches me
too drunk
smiles

jovan saved my bacon let me slide on a room
no i.d. and no gas and no way in america
out in the whirlpool i sit next to an old guy
here he is:

born canada then to small town oregon
old brothers younger sisters bike all over
he says his school was different because all the kids got along
football players hippies greasers rich kids poor kids
roaming the oregon edge
they all went to U. Oregon he became a designer
but what he does is not who he is we agree
married twenty-five years and now nine with the new
it happens
spiritual conferences peace marches
al gore and the solar cooker people
benjamin franklin and jefferson and adams and washington
africa and india and deep space
'you're one of them? yes he says, laughing
i laugh me too
the two tough cowboy types grimace

strangers in garberville
seals in the ocean
deep ferns in redwood sinkholes
you say it's your birthday
write a song