In the Hoosegow II - Muse's Advisory, July 14 – Thalia (cont.):
The Randall County jail just north of Nazareth
up I-27 to Hollywood Road to southern Amarillo,
though cited by three DCJ inspectors in a row
for its deficient facilities, has hosted 50 or so
wetbacks for U.S. Immigration Enforcement
since the local crime rate hit an all-time low,
about one murder and one rape a year,
and then Obama's 18 votes.
This is where the Holy Family woke
to the disturbing sound of bells from St. Mary's
clashing with the play-by-play at Trinity Fellowship Stadium
and reggaetón from the Youth Refuge band
at the Church of the Nazarene.
Welcome to the Panhandle and welcome to the jail
of Sheriff Joel Richardson, Captain Paul Horn,
Lieutenant Kirk Roberts, Lieutenant Joe Morris,
Sergeant Barry McNutt, Sergeant Bettye Nelson,
Sergeant Matt Stocksill, Sergeant Nina Parvin,
Sergeant Steve Courts, Corporal Charley Carrell,
Corporal Kerry Blackerby, Corporal Nick Wright,
Corporal Randy Tinsley and Corporal Ray Gibbons;
all good Americans, reasonably God-fearing,
tolerably educated, respectable people
no less prepared to find Yeshua, Miriam and Zeus
inside their jail on this fine morning
than you or I or anyone would be.
But they're professionals, and don't panic—
not as well trained as Israeli anti-terrorists
but well enough to calmly ask
the three new inmates for their names.
Back at the desk, the lieutenant glances
at the sergeant, who glances
at the corporal: no one has an explanation
as to why there is no documentation
on who exactly brought this ragtag family in—
exactly what kind of motherfucking stunt
La Migra thinks they're pulling!
Reluctantly, they call up Captain Horn,
a knowing man who swears Crap! seven times,
retrieves his light brown shirt from where it neatly hangs
over a solid wooden chair beside a steel twin bed,
slowly draws it on and grimly buttons it.
In the Hoosegow III - Muse's Advisory, July 15 – Yeshua to Miriam and Zeus:
I've stretched bait-fish and crusts of bread into a five-course meal and eaten fast food on the road until I pretty much forgot what stovetop cooking tasted like, but I can't eat this slop at all. What they call coffee tastes like some concoction you might have to swallow for a pre-op nurse.
Do you two understand how hard it is to bust two inmates out of jail in Israel? that I have other prisoners—victims—I'm supposed to feed? But no, let them all rot so I can do what I tell all of my disciples not to do: take care of my own fucking family!
No, you can't go back to Israel! You still don't know how deep and hot the water is you're standing in? It's way over your heads, out of your league. You do recall I tangled with them once myself and wound up dead?
They'll be here soon themselves, I guarantee. We have to skedaddle and cover our tracks. If there is one place Shin Bet and Mossad tread lightly, it's North Texas. Here, I'm a king like Barbie Bush or Ellie Ewing. All these good ole boys and gals are way too busy asking what I'd do to ever wonder what I'm doing. Watch this, both of you—put on these STP caps—here we go, a bit of flattery and sex appeal—the classic breakout.
Beg pardon, ma'am? Officer Bettye...—Jesus Lord, are you the Bettye Nelson? 'Great is thy Faithfulness' and 'It is Well'? 'How Much He Cares for Me'? Oh goodness gracious, Bettye! I reco'nize that voice of yourn most anywhere! God bless you! Blessyou!
No? You're white? can't sing a lick? You had me fooled—that voice! Why, sweeter than a bird's! Can you just sing one little song? Me and these two oldtimers here would sore appreciate a little bit of that sweet inspiration on this Sabbath morn, what with and in consideration of our situation here. Would Jesus sing? I know He would, I know He would!
Why, you think I look somethin' like the Lord? Well don't you have a way of flatterin' a man! I got the beard, I know I got the beard, but surely that's as far as the resemblin' go! He's some bit taller, ain't He? Don't His hair—well, you know—sort of glow? If I looked anythin' at all like Him, would I have gotten mixed up with the law?
But you have surely lifted up my heart, Miss Bettye Nelson who is white! I got to pray, I got to pray! Do you think you could pray with me? Oh, that would lift me up like nothin' else! You will? Oh, bless you! Bless you! Come on, right in here! Yea, kneel right here beside me! Lord! We praise Thee, Lord! Did You not visit me in prison?
Now considerin' I just got 'holt your gun, lift up your arms and shout with me: O, thank you, Lord!
What would Jesus do right now? Keep prayin' an' praisin' like a gentle Lamb, while I take these-here keys and we three haul our sorry persecuted asses clean away!
Sodden Moment in the Condo - Muse's Advisory, July 16 – Yusuf to tumbler of Baron Philippe de Rothschild:
Venit, vidi, vincunt.
She came,
I finally saw her,
goddam Israelis win again.
Patris Food Correspondent, Drafting on her iPad – Muse's Advisory, July 17 - Last Row, Church of The Dormition of the Ever Virgin, Palekastro, Crete,
www.aglaiakremezi.com/articles/general/fresh-fava-and-green-almonds.html:
“Lazarus Saturday brings the fuzzy green almonds called tsagala—a crunchy, juicy outer layer, and an inner nut translucent as a jelly drop—"
...the deeps all afraid in your presence, O Lord.
By raising Lazarus from hell,
You shook the dominion of death before Your own...
“—hawked fresh in street stalls all across Greece, jarred in syrup as a spoon sweet, baked in İstanbul with lamb and grated lemon—"
...You are the defender of my life, O Christ,
for You have reëstablished the world
so that it shall never again be overturned...
“—or added, tartly sweet, to fresh creamy yogurt or garlic-laced tzatzíki, as well as served as an accompaniment to araqī, oûzo or býra Mýthos—”
...You ride on your dumb beast, the colt of an ass,
but we greet You with palms and a carpet of linen,
for our hearts rejoice and know You...
Long Night Drive - Advisory, July 18 – Yeshua to Zeus:
You've both lost your way—
still functioning as in the old days.
Populism is the ticket now.
You've got to be
an operator—
half snake oil salesman,
half Golden Bough.
Drive east, Fort Smith,
southeast, Fort Worth,
due south, Midland,
southwest, Alamogordo,
due west, Santa Fe,
northwest, Colorado Springs,
north, the Indian grounds,
northeast, St. Joe.
Yes, I do have a license!
I flunked the road test twice
but on my third try
during that big February freeze,
I blew the dyke examiner away!
This big ole silver Yukon
skidded at me on black ice,
but I lightly braked
and pirouetted left!
Skank said, “Y'all earned
ya lah-cense right there.”
It's best we travel north.
The buffalo are gone
but I know where
we'll bag an elk,
a bear,
maybe a pronghorn deer—
plus plums, grapes,
mulberries, pecans and
prickly pear galore.
We'll eat well,
sleep beneath the stars.
It's a Comanche moon
and none of those Israeli goons
would dare!
At dawn we'll scare up
Campo's famous medicine man
to take you on a vision quest—
far and away the best
path to renew yourself.
Then I head back to work.
I don't know what we are
to one another,
but it ain't no Trinity!
We're individuals!
Look how much we disagree,
how frequently we fight.
So let's just grapple
with the current chaos—
give the slip to the Israelis—
hang in best we can—
and see what kind of fruit
shakes out.
You see that fucking 'Stang?
The way that good ole college boy
is weavin' in and out, be lucky if
he makes it back to UT/San Anton'.
Ole time religion's
take-the-cake ironic!
One part “Thank you Jesus,”
one part fuck thy neighbor catatonic,
and the third, abominating the demonic.
Adjust to modern times or perish, Pa—
shed eight millennia
of maladaptive patterns
on the dirt floor of the sweat lodge,
let me pimp you out
in dungarees and cowboy boots,
and you got half a chance.
For Ma—she always snore like that?—
a halter top
and something snug enough
around the hips to give
the local guys a woody.
Who's gonna tap a fullgrown woman in—
what would you even call it?—
an embroidered satin hoodie?
This buggy?
Yeah, a little snug for three.
I got it for two grand, though,
and the gun rack in the back
thrown in for free.
A Talon—AMC—
two-fifteen horse,
full turbo,
double cam on top.
not quite as tricked out as I'd like
but she's got plenty
where it counts.
We're gonna need it
once we make the grasslands
on High Lonesome out of Stratford
and we go off-road.
No, no, the ranger up there
won't say shit.
I he'ped his teenage boy once
with this pimple thing he had
and ever since, the dad's
completely in my pocket.
We're gonna camp, you'll love it!
I got a li'l ole pup tent back there
and this guitar that I found
on sale at Walmart.
I know “Sweet Baby James,”
“Home on the Range,”
and half the Oscar-winning theme
from Brokeback Mountain.
Shit wetback 18-wheelers
think they own
this motherfuckin' road!
Back off my ass, Ramiro!
Cocaine dudn't spoil!
Look, I can get you back to Crete
or to your old place on Koressos,
but out here—
a soul can really be himself.
No one looks twice.
As long as you work 'Jesus'
into every couple sentences,
folks figure you're alright
and leave you be.
They been real
welcomin' to me.
They like my measured speech,
the uncut hair beneath
my “St. P.” cap—
Scientifically Treated Petroleum
right in St. Joe, Missouri!
They lahk me an' I lahk them.
I'm feelin' young
and learnin' to have fun.
I'm collecting DWI's!
Aw, I can see you're bushed.
's okay, we'll talk it out another time.
Once them Israelis give up and go home,
if you decide to stay
I know a great spread you can rent
on a sweet stretch of the Canadian.
Promise me you'll think about it?
It ain't my aim to interfere
or try to make it out we're close
despite so many not-close years.
Truth is, I may move up to Utah
if a little sumpin' sumpin'
I been working on pans out—
jus' wanna set y'all up
so's I don't have to worry
so doggone much.
Wait till we get there
and you see that moon!
Wait till you hear
the lone coyote howl!
We'll get the tent set up,
night-sight ourselves some game—
don't worry,
I got six egg sandwiches,
worst comes to worst—
cook, eat,
pat down the grass—
it's like a pillow, it's so soft!
If there's a storm,
you two'll shelter in the tent,
I'll stretch out right here
in the cab.
No, I insist!
In Texas, practicality is king—
it's what I like about this land,
it doesn't matter who's a god,
a demigod, an angel or a man.
Ah, here we are.
See that jackrabbit
pretending he's stone?
You can almost feel
the horned owl fixed on—
see that tiny flutter
in his chassis?—
that's his heartbeat,
pitter-patter, pitter-patter.
What Became of the Comanche - Muse's Advisory, July 19 – Clio:
Milk slit from an elk doe's udder
bear liver raw and dressed in gall
and curd from a suckling buffalo's gut
keep
spirits alive when measles, smallpox
and cholera attack
.
Fourteen code-talkers
Dick and Elgin Red Elk, Clifford Otitivo
Robert Holder, Larry Saupitty
Melvin Permansu, Forrest Kassanavoid
Willie Yackeschi,
Charles Chibitty
Willington Mihecoby
Perry Noyebad
Haddon Codynah
Morris Sunrise
Simmons Parker
rise in Oklahoma's Seven Cities
Indiahoma, Fletcher
Lawton, Cement
Cache, Walters, Cyril
protect the Utah Beach assault
win de Gaulle's Ordre du Mérite
now visit the tall
grass of campsites
whispering
to Naomi Shihab Nye
that no one “largely lives asleep.”
Wide Open Sky - Muse's Advisory, July 20 –
Tracy168:
gray powder
like greatgrandpa's ash
I step in it
to prove
an american's
dick
a quarter million
miles root to tip
is
longer than a soviet's
NASA:
“apollo 11/saturn V. whuh? armstrong backpack too wide for the hatch? roger.
1 small step for man & 1 big blank wall for the ephesus whorehouse graffiti heir.”
“viking 1/titan III-centaur at chryse planitia, mars. copy. houston command fault
overwrote antenna orientation software, contact lost after 2,306 earth days. out.”
Chief Anotklosh:
many ancestors walked on moon
who build the regolith palmful by palmful
while she-wolves bay
when the landscape is complete
and neigóon berries start to sweeten
we will follow the seal and the whale
upward to our next new home
when your astronauts come again
we will throw them a fine potlatch
Melpomene:
the fire's burning down
the pup tent's quiet
weightless
back to the glovebox to refuel
señor mescalero
All:
an incredible night of shooting stars breaching that ocean of celestial egg-cases
Pulling Over for Directions On the Edge of Campo, Colorado - Muse's Advisory, July 21 – Kazantákis to Zeus:
No, I am not ashame on.
Why do you think
I am ashame on?
You are from Kríti too, sir,
I can smell this.
Please tell to this NASCAR boy
that Greek people always
are dressing like I do.
Why are you seeking
for ashame on?
The old ways, they are dead.
So do not be ashame.
Does this lady in back seat
make you feel ashame?
She is not good woman.
Good woman
make man feel like god!
I had good woman
make me feel like god.
This NASCAR boy, he is your boy?
Do not feel ashame.
He is good boy.
I smell this.
I smell also mescalito.
Once I eat this too
and first I am vomit everything,
then I am eagle fly over sea
that glow in dark like wine.
What am I do here in West?
I do not have son.
I once have wonderful woman
name Eléni like your daughter,
your raping child by Leda,
Eléni tis Troías.
But she give me no son
to watch when I am died,
so I come here to West.
It have many bones,
I can smell.
Haidēs say to walk here
and enjoy to feel dry air
on skin.
But what is really “skin”?
Medicine man?
He live near post office—
ah, he is shame on?
He say I am sail with no ship
and wind blow me in desert.
I am ship that sink,
all sailors are drown.
The mast, it is taverna
only for worms now.
Kalí týchi. Good luck.
Mine is not so good
but I have good smelling
for you and this woman
and this handsome boy.
In middle town, turn right.
Not possible to miss—
he have big Billy Jack hat,
big turkey-vulture tailfeather
stand up tall in band.
Who else wear hat like this?
Tell him Níkos Kazantzákis
from Kríti is greeting to him.
万山群岛 Million Hill Islands - Muse's Advisory, July 22 – Japan China by N. Kazantzakis, trans. G. Pappageotes:
If you scratch the Chinese, you will find the Greek.
If you scratch the Greek, you will find the Chinese.
—Eléni Samiou
Charming little isles
like bare bodies done swimming
and now lying in the sun to dry.
Exotic Chinese junks float by,
tall-sterned, tar-smeared,
prows slender, craned
like thirsty dragons,
chocolate sails spread
like the wings of bats.
The peacocks of the night,
the fine coquettes, awake,
spread love-ruffled feathers
and paint their nails.
Silent yellow servants
push them in velvet handbarrows.
When one raises her foot,
the whole leg gleams
through her slit silk pajamas.
The Nitty Gritty - Muse's Advisory, July 23 – Shaman To Zeus, Miriam & Yeshua:
Of course I'm aware who you are!
You think I sit around all day
just lobbing loogs into the gutter?
I am the shaman, the medicine man,
it's my business to
track supernatural comings and goings,
it's my whole bread and butter.
Anybody got a smoke? some beer?
You don't think you can just pull up
in your red, pathetic, toy-size truck
and ask my help, without a fee?
This isn't charity!
I don't care who you think you are.
This is America—land of the free--
you buy whatever fucking thing you want.
There's something in the back I'll take,
and something in the glove compartment too.
No cash, no checks, it's strictly barter,
IRS has never heard of me
and that's the way
I want to greet the worms.
On this .270 Winchester
I smell a pronghorn, late last night.
This bag of mescalito—
see these fingerprints?—
they have the scent
of someone's sweaty dick on them.
Sí o no, Yeshua? Am I right?
At my age, I don't play!
You want the Cretan here
to have a magical experience?
You've come to the right nahual.
Pay in advance.
You want to just sit down,
squint at them prairie chickens doing
their flamenco in the yucca scrub?
That shit'll also
put you in a trance.
I smell Kazantzakis too.
Are you his friends?
He tell you how he didn't like
my divination and refused to pay?
Gun covers him, buttones you.
Don't think that's fair, go screw.
We have a deal? Okay.
Leave Zeus with me two days.
When you return for him,
I'll need a case of Lone Star
and a box of shells.
This shit isn't ouija.
It's a serious commitment.
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