flat water

penny slinger        another
broker     for speech boats
home into a tree made
of the dead named all
washington          watered

          city of plants
          to be heard

          is a kind of
          consumption

          of self
          no end

          of articulation
          eats the world

          the wall
          of resolve

wrought wrong or not
attends public school
for food, for sex
for what music
and how        it wasn’t
a well-made bell, rung
the ranger as faces
ticker-taped out his
mouth             flashing
themselves            yes
i remember i remember
the hippie who swung
his hammer at the bell
yes it’s true       he said
           GOD LIVES
a bunch of times
about ten years ago
right here
then went to jail
from nebraska


                          for CA Conrad