La Troca

a week ago at this reading I did
in Saint Cross with Opstedal the
last living poet in town this grey
head/bearded old dude came up
reminiscing about being at a
reading I did there circa 1979 in
the Victorian house I lived in for
a year while working on the
Bug Death MS on that very day
they began demolition of the
joint and all the local heavys
were there to read with me I
quess because I billed the whole
thing as Nettelbeck's Final
Reading and they were glad to
see me go because I used the
proceeds from the admission to
finance my move to Oregon in my
cherry 1950 Chevy 5-window
pickup where I went out into the
woods and drank beer and shot
off guns until I got it all out of my
system but that's that sad story
anyway this guy was very sweet
talking about those old days and
how glad he was to see me that it
was good we were still alive and
didn't I miss this and that and so
and so and have I seen Kessler
lately and I said well he's standing
right there and that got rid of him
but it got me thinking about how
much I missed that fucking truck
until an old-time Beatty homeboy
showed up with some whiskey
and turned out all the lights