9712. MY MIS-SPENT YOUTH

MY MIS-SPENT YOUTH

So, looking back, it's all been a waste

of time, really. Figure it for yourself,

the two extremes : a national anthem,

or reading existentialism while sitting

on the toilet. This Woody Guthrie guy,

'Bound For Glory,' he wrote. Bound

and gagged reads my own version. 

What's become of anything - secrets

of the purloined factory feel, that girl

Lydia, working the drill-press nearby;

the immigrant guy from Moldava, he's

now parking cars, the valet, at Chircio's

Steakhouse and Cantina. What a mix

is all this. A six-foot Russian national

parking mostly Japanese cars at a small

restaurant serving beefsteak and tacos.

The road calls; at least the shitty highway

is as American it can be. Starbucks.

Subway. And Seven-Eleven.