& the corner grocer has once again invited Marcos the elephant trainer to prepare a feast for the holiday & we’re all invited just like the time before when Maria & Nancy strutted naked in the rain & Betsy proposed a nasty rendezvous with Harold’s elegant valet & your kids began a food fight that ended when Irene was shot in the face by Bernard who had stolen his father’s S & W .38 & was known to detest anyone with black curls & that included his mother who wrestled him to the ground but not before Irene’s brother Jack shoved a bread knife between his ribs – But – this year will be different with grilled octopus all around & guards at every gate & two mixed cases of Rioja from Bilbao, beer from Finland & Grappa from Tuscany where they say this year’s vintage will be sensational & we’re all invited to Bob’s gallery for his opening & a horse race where the loser must sleep with the mayor’s wife & perform all the erotic acts she is known to demand & expects.

he gave his first prostitute a Tag Heuer watch for a blowjob & the next a puppy for the works & after a few more days of terror bought a ticket to Katmandu & borrowed a fellow passenger’s identity allowing him to enter a dream of self-immolation from which he escaped; his skin the color of rust / missing his eyebrows, ears & right eye. When they found him wandering the hills above Florence he showed them how he could remove what was left of his head & replace it with another that resembled that of Orion The Hunter – in his hands the corpse of The Lizard God & in his mouth a tongue that could never again shape his defense or tell the truth.

& the corner grocer has once again invited Marcos the elephant trainer to prepare a feast for the holiday & we’re all invited just like the time before when Maria & Nancy strutted naked in the rain & Betsy proposed a nasty rendezvous with Harold’s elegant valet & your kids began a food fight that ended when Irene was shot in the face by Bernard who had stolen his father’s S & W .38 & was known to detest anyone with black curls & that included his mother who wrestled him to the ground but not before Irene’s brother Jack shoved a bread knife between his ribs – But – this year will be different with grilled octopus all around & guards at every gate & two mixed cases of Rioja from Bilbao, beer from Finland & Grappa from Tuscany where they say this year’s vintage will be sensational & we’re all invited to Bob’s gallery for his opening & a horse race where the loser must sleep with the mayor’s wife & perform all the erotic acts she is known to demand & expects.

as it may be to some – especially those with a horse in his stable or a dog on a leash – he never encouraged fraternizing with the help or the civil guard or even his mother who lived like a queen in his memory right beside the statue of his father that was covered with pigeon shit & never looked his way – No – not once did he let on he’d ever been to Seattle or Nashville or carried a concealed weapon or illegal drugs or a passport from Jamaica – No – when he left this time it would be to climb Kilimanjaro like his son & daughter-in-law but without the vomiting or so he said – & No – he knew better than to explain traveling in winter to anyone who hadn’t – this time he’d take Boris the bulldog & his Colt .45 & wend his way south where continents divide & like those hearty pioneers before him he’ll ransack all he finds / harness an army to do his bidding & without so much as a second glance – liquidate the rest