Read an Excerpt
But then Jim Morrison came to take me on a trip.
His leather had changed to corduroy. Wherefore, Jim?
"After that heroin tub, when the soul sought
Avernus, I went through the Program
in Purgatory. Old Cherry--you ruined each other--
bit by a Cottonmouth hiking with her husband,
bid me come forgive you and make you give it up."
We followed these black demons to the door of the
Mellow Methodist church and I whispered to Cherry.
We passed the spot where Seagraves got hit
on the head with a brick by the brother of a young girl he'd
kissed. Oh Jim, we went to the pawn shop
to get my guitar but I was a dollar short.
Finally forlorn, Jim taught me to put
my hand through my hair darkly, with affect,
and to yelp loudly during the hilarious innuendo.
He taught me translucence, how to get back
to the Celts, the Lakota. He showed me
the raindrop on the petal on the windowsill
in the breeze. We came to Jefferson Barracks.
Standing at my parents' grave I noticed a little
something covered in the grass: the magic tessera dollar
of completion! I'd died just like the art therapist
had predicted and now I could get my gold guitar!
Jim morphed into a mad girl in a Mercedes asking for gas money.
--An Excerpt from "Everything I Love Restored," Everything I Love Restored and Other Poems
