774. BLACK RIVER DREAM

BLACK RIVER DREAM
No one ever told me different:
'You can't extend that hand and expect
not to be taken; bring me these drugs, and
I will give you sex; drive this car to Cincinnati
for me, and a guy there will take it off your hands,
give you five hundred dollars pay, and a bus
ticket home.' It's always like that, story-lines,
bad ideas, and stupid deals going down.
-
Deep in the Black River Forest, outside
of Chester village, I came across this wandering
Weimereiner hound - loose, running free, without
a collar, unfettered, gentle and meek. It led me
to the cave we entered, running me deep
beneath the rocks to the lantern in
the back. Like glistening water
taking a shape of its own,
the light was held by a
man of indeterminate
substance.
-
'Listen to me kindly, my man,'
he'd spoken backwards I
realized, 'for what I am
about to tell you has
already occurred.'
-
At that point, he took
a fire from the palm of his
hand and inserted it,
I noticed, deep in
the center of
my chest.