doing research
do salmon sink when they die?
today I am a master parallel parker
I hurry on sixteenth to broadway to pick up Cappelbaum
whom I promised to drive downtown
slip and slide down and up the stream
FASTER YOU COCKSUCKERS
and when he gets on he shouts i just smile
and turn the music up
within ten metres of crashing on a buck and a half
seeing visions of cops and sailors in cocked hats
talk shop with christian bök in the left ear and
overdrive flip turn rock in the right
no don't shake my hand man
don't remark on the state of the greying sky
instead without as much a goodbye
Cappelbaum bolts down davie to piss at the feet of venus's birth
then after passing a couple kissing triple x lines from now
Cappelbaum pays the attendant with a coin labelled SEX
and a wrought brow as he hurries on to bleed his thumb out the earth
in a small booth where they show bush saying sorry about knowing things
before they happen no doubt make no mistake about it
the state needs men for war against crete
marching all right and heads up sexteens sign postcards and post
done deals the men also need men at night
thinking he must be dead and gone but somehow still there
thirty years too young
Cappelbaum feels his muscles taut
his beard turned to angry stubble points
suddenly
he belongs
hey man cheap joints?
Cappelbaum nods left and right
and to his secret delight
the context of the square made on air with fingers
lingers the street comes alive
they now see him first
Cappelbaum smiles back his carefully picked words
shoes and jacket turned to new sneakers speaking about
sneaking
cargo into his pants and if he wants he could flirt with that
girl playing the djembe but
he pretends to be cool enough to
not care then it hits Cappelbaum
(he swears
half live on a prayer but half share his ache
being clean is tough
but many who look and still talk are
also a sort of fake
Cappelbaum pushes the door and gets out while walking to
blenz he draws a sign that says
WHERE WILL I GET SO MANY MEN
spare some change helps a monochromatic man change a spare
sighs before he sells his hand signs for two hundred million
things at the va gü and with a big whoosh he flaps his
wings made of 70s play boy things
Cappelbaum is off
to lay a nest on top of the newspaper building trough as
tank caterpillars embed leaves into the ground the drive is hard
the price is right andre the giant in sticker form buys ammo rounds
transforms pumpkin seeds on a pizza box
to a numbered microphone in a positive mail slot
grabs a bushel of uncut hancocks and hurries on the bus
to change all the clocks so that the night bars
with the thirsty tongues hanging out on the rocks
won't be swallowed up by the sea Cappelbaum
seeing me waiting faithfully at the car
bored out of my mind
BLOODY LOYAL CUNT YOU 'RE
shouts through the park
runs drunk out of his mind
shouting again START 'ER UP THEY'RE NOT FAR BEHIND
and as I kick my Chevette in the gut
blasting beck and what else god knows
heart pumping
Cappelbaum
REVERSE THIS BITCH
NOW STRAIGHT GO GO
I rev and ride over the toes of the crowd
small from afar but now a mob waving Cappelbaum's day
(that he won't let me go until he tells me six
different ways
now a chick screams GIVE BACK MY WIT
Cappelbaum grabs her tit
she smiles dirty old prick but climbs in
her ass
sticking out the window Cappelbaum shouts
GIVE 'ER GAS
but I don't even have to stick to my gear shift stick
since the crowd raises the car and
quick as a wick
a quiet girlboy opens the rear door
may I come in?
I shout HELL YES and he comes in and I
flushed
120kph
depressurised
shoot over granville bridge into the night
three times