HUGH'S NIGHT IN SOLITARY
Posted: May 20th, 2006, 11:31 am
HUGH’S NIGHT IN SOLITARY
( at the Nevada Proving Grounds)
Performance notes:
( After some frolics with cowgirl prostitutes, a friend of mine went crazy and imagined he was Christ wearing the crown of thorns, in Reno, Nevada 1969.)
Hardrock miners in Washoe Valley
pull cotter pins from
a cart of ore
fisting the atomic nuggets
down the chute
bedrocking Ike’s
ice highway.
Cowgirl wraiths squeeze
black hash into dirty palms
drink
four coronas to wash it down
consider the last star
between the antenna’s ears;
the last test pattern
is a festival of wristwatches
in Seoul
and Korean smiles.
Donner Pass and the fondness
you felt for the holy ghost
thorns deep in your own brow--
this evening
a big brown mountain
where you stepped into
the ditch of your own Judas.
(originally printed in TURK #11 and DIRTY ROMANCE: New and Selected poems 1999-2006/ Two Continents Press)
( at the Nevada Proving Grounds)
Performance notes:
( After some frolics with cowgirl prostitutes, a friend of mine went crazy and imagined he was Christ wearing the crown of thorns, in Reno, Nevada 1969.)
Hardrock miners in Washoe Valley
pull cotter pins from
a cart of ore
fisting the atomic nuggets
down the chute
bedrocking Ike’s
ice highway.
Cowgirl wraiths squeeze
black hash into dirty palms
drink
four coronas to wash it down
consider the last star
between the antenna’s ears;
the last test pattern
is a festival of wristwatches
in Seoul
and Korean smiles.
Donner Pass and the fondness
you felt for the holy ghost
thorns deep in your own brow--
this evening
a big brown mountain
where you stepped into
the ditch of your own Judas.
(originally printed in TURK #11 and DIRTY ROMANCE: New and Selected poems 1999-2006/ Two Continents Press)