Subtle Follow

When the long vein of the law bites
His right eye at you from behind
His stingy brimmed black hat of all fact

Yours can only choke
Firing blanks all over the floor
In front of you until your mouth half lights

And all your body water rushes
To the soft fillets of your back

Before you can speak
He touches a very serious finger
To the neck of your hand

And your skin breaks out in solid map
All spreading from a sizable city
Some 300 miles east of Dallas, Texas

Dallas, appearing just below
The cheap lamp of your throat chakra
The 35 East running the length
Of your torso and disappearing off
The soft coast of your hip

Some moments later
Your West Central Texas skin
Display begins to purple

And there he is feeling for thorns
On the stems of your eyes
You jerk them back to the twice
Focus shot of your naked rim
And begin to dig in your pockets
For a first stuffed animal or absent note

You have a good idea of what's coming now
So you reach for your mouth to cut words, but

He speaks! "Son, you seize your grass
And sunlight in the film beneath your face
And wronged between half writ books
On outcoals and medium, no medium, no"

So he shows you the feather
That he grew inside his femur
You reach for your mouth to cut words
But all you can say is
'Every day I, every day I
Every day I, every day I' and 'Never'

So he points to the hole
Now spreading carefully on your sunken chest
Gently shakes his clear blue head
And then he teaches you the 'Vacation'
Before disappearing up into the open mouth
Of his fine fixed hat of all fact

And then?
And then it all goes black

When you come to something in your throat
Feels more forgiven and the sunlight seems
To have put back the knife it sometimes pulls on you

Hopefully, next time you see one another
He'll be all 'What's up!' with his hat off
One fist full of coconut and small umbrella

A young George Washington
Lounging there beside him
Sucking centers from 100 watt bulbs
Using a two dollar bill
Scoping his naval full of sweat
As it steeps in the sun