amy, liquid gold

skinny-trip huffer man hacks his lung

onto the sidewalk

with a backturned, halfass basketball cap

basketball, peach basket, orange basket

basket so big like a swollen huffer-head that he holds

holds in a huffer-haze

vox clamantis, said my starchwhite friend

vox clamantis hollering

hoop-de-holler highway hollers

to the highest of heaven

(not in the desert)

while the skinny-trip huffer man

swings a deal for a tube of something good

his dirty little fingernails

like a tiny little set of sheet metal brakes

dirty line of mulch for growing potatoes

(like my brother used to say)

scratch of skin

and scratch of hair

and scratch of mucous from his nose

(some call it snot, but it's not)

even tiny little bits of dried blood clinging right in there

mingled with the feces

from the stool

from the men's room

from the grocery store

right on the bus line

but skinny-trip huffer man

holds his crotch

so the girls will look at him and know

they will know he is more

more than just a skinny-trip huffer man

with a set of sheet metal brakes at hand

and a seventeen o-clock shadow

on the skinny upper lip

that waggles just a little bit

when the old lady screams

and the old man hits

and maybe he isn't more

than a skinny-trip huffer child

in a big-boy-bounding-bold

and balding basketball cap

and his bowels came loose

all over seventh avenue

and the man with the really big eye

(just the left one)

(he injects the paint into the right one)

(it's okay, sugar-poopsie)

(it stopped hurting months ago)

the man with the really big eye

laughed away the smell

on seventh avenue

when the skinny-trip huffer man

lost his bowels

but for just a minute

so now

skinny-trip huffer man wipes his hands

onto the sidewalk

with a backturned, halfass basketball cap

basketball, peach basket, orange basket

basket so big like a swollen huffer-head that he holds

holds in a huffer-haze

and it pounds

pounds

pounds

like a swollen huffer-head

ripe with

the sweetest,

ripest,

huffest,

hottest,

hopped-up hoop-de-huffer

holy hangman

amyl nitrite

I just love you,

sugar-poopsie.

Wake up now,

okay?