Take Off Your Hat, Lennie. The Air Feels Fine.

You get a kick out of that, don't you?  All right:
We'll move this verse from the slum to the city;
we're sick of hearing rain on corrugated steel,
dirt road, dirt floor...alleys in the city,
Holy Mary sleeping on newsprint wall;
I think, you think, isn't it a pity
we got stuck with brains that think at all.

But we'll put every other metaphor on the lottery!

That's right, Lennie.  Now, turn around and listen:
Back down, get off,
come on, you've had your dollar's worth.
See the baby crying with flies on his lips?
Flash Dance, Ft. Knox,
baby in a cardboard box,
Cinderella dressed in yellow, move those hips.
Here's a ditch for a bathroom,
a row of people there.
Don't talk, bend over, cover up your face;
you can't see your own disgrace.
Greenspan, Peter Pan, Jim and Tammy Baker,
politician, businessman, Neanderthal earth shaker.
Up with your pants, dust off your toes,
turn around, hold a nostril, blow your nose.
Roach in your cornmeal, mice in your bed,
nickle in your pocket and nothing in your head...

But it ain't like that with us, is it, George?

No, it ain't.  Turn around, look across to the city.
We'll have a house and a kitchen packed with food...

And ketchup!

Sure, ketchup...and we'll have a garage with cars,
and in the study, we'll have a...word processor.

For the novel!

For the novel.

And I get to proof read the novel!

Yeah, Lennie, you get to proof read it.  No, don't turn
around...keep looking at the city.



(Arkansas Magazine, Arkansas Democrat, July 5, 1987)