THE RULES-POLONIUS REVISITED


How I hated them when I was your age,

yet I learned there was a ridge of them

anyway I turned, surrounded, so here:

first, you are never going to make money

off this, bury that reason like a dead

dog, deep enough to keep live dogs away.


Two, your relevance will fade, so work the

razor hard against the window, give your

gut the wheel when you can, memory

will never save you from sins of omission.


Three, run with the wolves if your heart

will let you; they know the scent of the meat;

they are yellow-eyed and stirred, abrasive;

they will not outrun destiny or each


other, but they will forget they are slaves

before it's over. Finally,

to thyself be blue, only if you are blue;

truth is slow, unbeaten, too.



RAY-1973


He was a photographer

of some disreputable

sort; he had a three legged

shepherd named 'Cid, a dark-eyed

friendly mutt who wore jangling

"dogtags" from field days in Nam.


We visited for reefer

purposes, mid afternoons

in his rented down town loft;

we lied about our high school

exploits; he lied about

everything, yet he was too cool


to be a narc, too out there

somehow. Ray taught us to roll

perfect joints, the biker

lingo, what a man might call

selective ambition; he

said he would marry a rich

woman, and one day he did.



Tim Peeler

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