That brief sick hope of escape
is willing grass and the comeliest of tinder.
Where is the rock, the lake?
He’s wide-eyed in a glade
in a smoky wood.
He tries to piss it away, the dirty dream.
And succeeds. The dream isn’t the problem.
Where is your faith, man?
He thinks of all he’s afraid of,
of all the present and future threats.
He checks the clock. And prays. And twists
and turns.
A man’s a man, though a little slow
till he’s swift as smoke in Idaho.