Daniel

man, there's this kid out on the side of the road on his way to going somewhere and this kid's got about fifty three wired dollars in his pocket and a piece of paper from a government office that says he's crazy enough for uncle sam to pay for and he's on his way to another town... again, another town with a song in his head he can't quite get down on paper but its better than what's on any radio anywhere..ever. this kid's seen more wierd shit than twenty carnival workers and seventy times seven sailors combined 'cause he's seen the other side and man the side he's seen aint always pretty and i'm tellin you there's things over there been around since before this whole world and they're not so friendly and not so welcoming to visitors that aren't part of their black eyed scheme and they'll tag your toe like a rat and follow you around and fuck with the ones you love best....your sister for example...the one hiding upstairs..cryin'........'til you finally find yourself out on some highway with a thumb in the air praying that God's still helping and this car pulling over isn't driven by someone who's, well..one of them...and they're everywhere, they are,and they're working like hell and i mean HELL to bag your bedroom eyes and half dreaming ass and carry it off to someplace the real nuts get famous for visiting and writing about or sometimes even painting. we auction off their their deaths all the time..what they leave behind. an ear out there in the mail.

this kid keeps seeing things that go on back stage. those slippery little bastards come running up grinning like "you weren't supposed to see that." but he keeps seeing that. the glitches and smiling cogs and that shit that's on the radio..the messages between the lines. he's not exactly crazy and not quite what you'd call lazy. he drinks a lot these days. people don't understand everything he says. he uses big words that only appear in certain books or are heard in certain hospitals on certain floors where visiting hours are over, girl.

 he knows its a show but he can't quite seem to grab the curtainman's arm long enough to wrestle a blessing or a secret out of whoever that slippery fellow is......you know, like jacob did...... he sees it every day, he hears it everywhere.

the kind of things most people dismiss when they catch a sidweays glimpse out of the corner of an eye or take a mother load of some substance and are told later they were just high. its real subliminal but always right there in your face. I heard about this hypnotist that told this guy he'd not be able to see his daughter on the count of three. snapped his finger and then had the daughter come out and stand right there in front of the now hypnotised man. he couldn't see her. the hypnotist held up a watch behind the girls back and said "what am i holding up?"the man said "a watch."he could read the inscription on the back of it. right through his daughter. you know what that means? it means there's things going on that we can and do see. and what we see is what we're allowed to see in the classroom we're living in with a teacher who's got an apple on her desk and she's got scales in certain light and you've gotto steal the hall pass from under that apple and run like hell if you're going to miss the fib up on the blackboard.this kids got the hall pass. he's out there in the hall trying to make a phone call and getting some operator on the line who says something different every time. yesterday she told him to row his boat, the day before to remember his line."i can't believe this is happening,"he says as a janitor walks by whistling that damned song...gently down the stream...you know the one. "what asshole wrote that song anyhow?"

he thinks.

and laughs

 the way he does now. kind of bitter. sardonic he might add.

this has been going on since before that day in the woods. he woke up in the back of a car doing 100 with his brother frantic 'cause they'd just gotten caught backstage. isolated. naked. higher than kites. it. went. down. there.

On the side of the road, years going by. the man in the car's whistling a familiar song. he says the devil knows his own. On his way out west 'cause the west is the best. A red car. Cutting tags offa mattresses. Got a real bad temper. See you in the promised land. Deja vous.

By the way this kids my brother and you know, he's one of God's kids. yesterday was his birthday. So was neitze's but so what. that guy was a dick and last i heard God's not dead . neither do we. Here's to skipping class and razorblade apples, brother. I love you. We're gonna make it. Hold on.