Untitled - ScholarWorks Home - California State University, Northridge

very birth - but though it has been
my hope my passionate desire to
have this man, my father, beg forgive­
ness (in my dream it was from a piss­
smelling wheelchair) for all his many
wrongs, just so that I could pass him
by on Skid-row (though why I'd even
be walking on such a street is unclear
to me) with nary an acknowledgment
of his wretched existence, don't need
you or recognize you are even alive,
old man I dreamed of saying - but
now I find I am inexplicably moved
touched, empathetic even, wanting
and wishing now I could help
somehow this unfortunate creature,
my father ... and it is then I see the
porpoises. A pair. Dipping
disappearing re-appearing slippery in
and out of the Earl Grey-tea colored
seawater behind the surfer dudes
hanging-zero and lazier than even
me. Smooth, Flipper's second cousins
are, diving again like black ... bullets
by God look at' em go
dad says interrupting my thoughts,
once again, my very fears
5
free as rain what a great and wonderful
thing it is to be free as rain
LATER, after I have driven us, the
reunited, to my Van Nuys $510 per
month failed screenwriter special shit­
dump, and after I was sure as he lay
there on my tequila and cheap beer­
stained passenger car seat (that trip to
Ensenada with Frederick and Nickle­
bag Boy) with eyes closed, spittle
fizzling over lower lip he had in fact
already gone to swim with Flipper's
second cousins forever, and after
Crazy Kelly nosed in and was actually
welcome for once, a regular Candy­
Stripe 1970's drive-in movie theater
exp loi ta tion half -angel/half-whore
Colleen Camp nurse-maids, and who
whines "oh, the poor old cowboy
why didn't you tell me your dad was
comin' to visit you what kind of son
are you he's a real looker too do you
think he wants a beer?" and after he
opened his eyes just as CK, mini­
skirted simply because it was
Tuesday, was bending over in front of
dad prone on my lone sad couch to