Poem
PT. 5
+_+_+
“Back in the ravine, just so you know,
“I was really vibing…” she says.
Jimmy is so pleased, he stops walking.
Maybe he wasn’t auditioning,
Or maybe he’s just a good actor.
Or maybe that 1930s movie Trouble In Paradise,
the con-woman conning the con-man already double-conning her,
is how it always
is
before capture.
“I enjoyed the ravine too...”
Everything Jimmy says to her,
he says with the precious air of,
“I do.”
“Except for that part where you had to smoke that spliff…
That put the question back in my head.”
“The question being —”
“What if
you’re a bad bad man who can’t help but hurt others?”
The German Shepherd torpedoed under Jimmy’s legs, splitting them open.
“Jesus Fucking Christ! Why would you say that?”
“Because there’s something about you that belongs in jail.”
Jimmy sighs, learning to take her ribbings with the cold pride of a man told to act hot about his boyish crimes.
“Sorry. My dad smokes. Maybe it just reminds me of being ignored --”
“Do you feel ignored now?”
“Not at all,” she complained
petting the German Shepherd’s ears
as Jimmy bit hers.
+_+_+
It’s 6:18 in the evening
when the first flames of Eaton Canyon are seen
26 hours after Jimmy’s spliff in the ravine
Still, what are the odds?
She gave him all that shit about windand wildfire,
and the next day, in the same canyon…
THE SPLIFF THAT MADE THE WORLD
ASK WHAT IF JIM-
Jimmy better call her
Women can be superstitious
These Rudolf Steiner types especially
succumb to following signs
over outcomes.
5 rings to voicemail
Jimmy fails to make a joke about himself as the Accidental Arsonist of Los Angeles
Pounds # to delete the message.
But # is not the right command.
Pounds 3, 1, 2.
Records the effort to delete himself.
Stalls. Pretends the phone is long forgotten inside his pocket walls.
Lets her listen to him wash dishes as he
Tries to think of something natural to say before the beep,
something private for her to overhear,
to keep.
Out Loud, in his haunted house, he speaks:
“I guess that date yesterday
was a little TOO hot
for Eaton Canyon…”
struck by thunderous regret
on syllable one.
Then he thumbs 0, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 2
But no options are given
for his deletion
+_+_+_