The Long Vein Of The Law - Subtle

of the law

When the long vein of the law bites his right eye at you

from behind his stingy brimed black hat of all facts

And yours can only choke

filing blanks all over the floor in front of you

until your mouth half lights

and all your body water rushes to the soft fillets of your back

Before you can speak,

he touches a very serious finger to the neck of your hand

and your skin breaks out in

all spreading from a sizable city some three hundred miles east of Dallas, Texas

Dallas appearing just below the cheap lamp of throat shakra

the thirty five cent running the length of your torso

and disappearing over the soft cost of your hip

Some moments later,

your west central Texas skin begins to purple,

and suddenly he’s feeling for thorns on the stems of your eyes

You jerk them back to the twice focus shot

of your glasses blur black rim and hiss

and fiddle in your pockets for a first stuffed animal or some obscene note

You have a good idea of what’s coming

You reach for your mouth to cut words

But

He speaks:

Son, you seize the grass and sun tight in the film beneath your face

and wrong between half writ books on outcoals and medium no medium no

He shows you a feather that he grew in his femur

You reach for your mouth to cut words

But all you can say is

Everyday Hard (x4)

And so he points to a hole now spreading carefully on your sunken chest gently

shakes his clear blue head and teaches you the word Vacation before

dissappearing into the open mouth of his face fixed hat of all fact

And then it all goes black

A R (x2)

When you come to,

something in your throat feels more forgiven,

and the sunrise seems to have put back the knife it sometimes pulls on you

Hopefully, next time you see one another,

He’ll be all «What's up?»

with his hat off, one hand full of coconut and small

umbrella

A young George Washington lounging there beside him,

sucking centers from one hundred watt bulbs with a two dollar bill,

scoping his navel full of sweat as it steeps in the sun