insurrection timeout: at the border with bryan
Bryan, you went into Mexico without a passport,
and now your eulogies stick out the brim
of my hat, spit stuck between bus schedules,
penciled in phonebook margins,
gas station donut paper.
I pretended to be a man so we could be true friends,
I traveled with you even though you walked with God saddling your skinny back like a knight, gimme a pencil and I will re-write a Bible for you to include girls who are half Man.
To include modern magic, Rapture in Kansas City, Exodus to Mexico, gimme a pencil and I’ll write:
Outside Pikeville, Kentucky, Jesus saw a djinn fall asleep beside a pine box, from which sprung a beautiful woman.
In Detroit King Solomon met a businessman so jealous of his beautiful wife, he bought a talking parrot to watch her.
Bryan, you played Monopoly with Mennonites and lost,
ham and cheese from mom’s diner dumpster,
riding freight trains with my penciled in Jesus whispering in your ear:
You can’t sleep in a car
with your arms round
that rifle in Mexico,
you can’t even speak Spanish.
I am googling your eulogies into tourist cellphones,
I bought a half used phonecard from a bible salesman
pretending to be a woman, I bought a talking parrot
from a djinn in Tunica and I’m standing in El Paso
to send the bird to Juarez, to whisper in your ear:
get back.
–> nicky