Faith and Rosie, Dick and Prevy,
Cruising Main in Prevy's Chevy.
Nomad. Hey. Four on the floor;
Back seats gone, a mattress for
Camping out or making love--
Footprints testify above.
Prevy's back there, back with Rosie--
Curtains keep it private, cozy;
What they're doing's understood--
Friday nights are always good.
Speakers thunder out the Clash--
In the rearview, red lights flash.
"Fucking pigs, it's only one--
I guess we're having too much fun.
Must be Rat, the dumb-ass jerk.
Tonight I'm going to make him work."
Dick, who's driving, headed home,
Red lights bouncing off the chrome.
Dick pulled in, jumped from the car
And told his friends, "Stay where you are."
From behind, loudspeaker blew,
"Dick, we'd like a word with you."
Nice department talk, redneck.
Dick hollered back, "Hang on a sec."
Jumps the steps, scoots in his house
While two cops, called Rat and Mouse,
Called for backup from safe outside--
Dick was going for a ride.
Rat leaned on his cruiser's hood,
Mouse was acting Hollywood,
Talking like he's real hip,
Hand was on his pistol grip,
"You kids just stay put for now--
We'll be showing Richard how
It goes, so Dick understands."
Dick came out and in his hands
A shotgun pointing up said, "Hey!"
Grinning, Dick asks, "What you say?"
Rat jumped over his car so fast
A hernia could have been forecast.
Mouse just froze, what COULD he say?
Not used to questions put this way:
He pissed his pants, dropped to a squat,
His pistol just an afterthought.
Dick cracked up to see how cops
React when you bring out the props.
Rat drew his, Dick backed inside,
Rat aimed to fix his wounded pride.
Back-up came in seconds flat--
Dick's friends watched from where they sat
Until a cop came up and told
Them, get out slow and likewise hold
Their hands out front so he could see.
Then he told them, "Come with me."
Dick watched from the livingroom;
The walls pulsated crimson doom
As red lights flashed out on the lawn.
Behind him Dick heard Jimmy yawn.
"What happened?" "Nothing, yet," said Dick.
"Rat's his usual self, the prick.
He tried to pull us over hoping
He'd be finding something open.
All that was, was Prvey's fly."
His brother laughed, "Boy, how you lie.
Who the fuck you think you are?
The gun won't get you very far.
Looks to me they're in control--
They're beefing up the Rat Patrol.
You go put that gun away.
As soon's they hear what I've to say,
I'll have them eating from my hand.
Just forget what you had planned."
Dick's brother stepped into the lights,
"What's happened to Ramona's nights?
Is this all you can find to do?
Our frontyard's looking like a zoo?"
Jimmy, they can't take a joke.
Cops are real serious folk.
Shotguns pumped and leveled at
Jimmy's chest. Some diplomat.
A bullhorn called, "Hands up and walk
To the street. Hands up. Don't talk."
Jimmy walked till four arms grabbed
His and cuffed his hands then jabbed
His belly with a shotgun butt.
"Boy, you keep your fat mouth shut."
Dick was watching, "Fucking law.
Hope don't wake up Gil and Ma.
Gil is going to kick my ass,
He finds out what's on the grass."
Ah, the cops, they owned the streets--
From mobile blinds they worked their beats,
Cruising town and counting head--
Their favorite sport be pumping lead,
Or rooting on a special team:
Skim milk backing up the cream.
"Hey, good buddy, what a show!"
Four flak jackets creeping slow
Cover the back, the front, and sides.
Through the front door gung-ho glides,
Just a heavy, silent gust.
Front room dark, his eyes adjust;
Checks the kitchen, creeps the hall,
Hunkered almost to a crawl.
He's at a door, he gives a shove,
Bedroom sounds of making love:
Flashlight probing--startles Gil,
"Who the fuck...? I'm gonna kill...."
"Police, don't move. We're after Dick."
"He ain't home, so beat it, quick."
Dick's mom asked, "Hey, what's he done?"
"Never mind. He's got a gun.
Stay here while I look around.
Better hope your boy's not found
Or we'll be taking you in too."
"What's he done?" The cop withdrew,
Leaving Dick's folks wondering how
He got himself in trouble now.
Another door. Flak jacket took
Another careful, nervous look.
Bathroom. Shower. No one there.
Another door. Another prayer.
This had got to be Dick's room--
Cop expects the sharp ka-boom
Exploding from the gun Dick held.
From his stomache, vomit welled.
Door is shut, he turns the knob,
All done how he learned the job.
Around the room the flashlight beamed:
Bunkbeds, dresser, desk. It seemed
Empty. Closet. It's door is closed.
Behind the door the cop supposed
That Dick sat holding his 12-gauge,
Waiting to vent his pent-up rage.
Cop signals on his walk-talkie--
Right now feeling not so cocky.
His partner comes, they set themselves,
Expecting it's a twelve on twelves
That blows someone away tonight.
"Dick," gung-ho calls out polite,
"Open up the closet door,
And push the gun out on the floor."
Cops would rather face a riot.
Behind the door was ambush quiet.
One opened it, the other aimed--
From within it, yellow flamed.
Silence screamed and shadow matter
Tore their minds apart to spatter
Reality like beads of sweat.
Time stood frozen.
Dick had chosen
The time to light a cigarette.
One cop held him in his sights,
The other flipped the ceiling lights.
They watched amazed as Richard puffed.
"Thought I'd smoke before I'm cuffed.
How's it going? New in town?
Don't think I've seen you around."
They busted Gil for hiding Dick.
They busted Jim for his dumb trick.
They took Rosie to the Hall.
Faith gave Rosie's mom a call.
Guess who answered. Rosie's dad.
Came and got her, hopping mad.
The cops said, "Mister, watch your kids,
A daughter's reputation skids
Hanging out with poor white trash
Who like to spend her daddy's cash."
Of Dick's charges, one would stick:
Resisting. Dick said they could lick
His something or other, I forget
Which one it was--but you can bet
That Dick knew how to act disgusted--
Not the first time he's been busted.
Hand it to the Dick, he's ballsy.
Me, I'd look like I had palsy,
Scared and shaking like a fish,
Landed by my own death wish.
Dick. He gave us quite a treat--
Big doings where the pantlegs meet.
But Dick, next time you get it on
With cops think of a marathon--
No sprint to your mama's lawn;
Like revolutions, come and gone--
All take time, this one red dawn,
The ugly duck becomes a swan.
You've all heard the backward talk
You hear in redneck bars at night;
You either get up, take a walk
Or get into a fight.
Win or lose, the Nazi punk
Will never cop that his shit stunk.
Jesse, he's intelligent,
But doesn't know what brains are for;
He said, "Nigger". I thought he meant
The kiss-ass we ignore.
Jesse pissed off everyone--
Sorry, Jesse, got to run.
Wouldn't you know the KKK
Is catching Jesse's fancy?
Just the thing to make his day:
Hoods and nothing chancy:
Helping out the law and order
Catching migrants at the border.
Cutting corners to the right,
Banking off the center line,
Daylight biker, hood by night;
Jesse fits in there just fine--
Jumping red lights, running stops,
Only thing he fears are cops.
Leaning hard on every curve;
His kickstand sparks; he's born to make
Them faster than a sudden swerve--
That's the only chance he'll take.
The only curve he missed he swore
The cunt was nothing but a whore.
Open throttle, valley road;
Open bottle in his vest;
Tries to live up to the code
Of outlaws riding with the best;
Guns to catch up to the pack
Or rabbits scooting down the track.
Life so bitter, death is sweet;
Thrills become his only friends,
Except when he tries to repeat
A trip somewhere where Jesse spends
His time in squalid ecstacy--
The thrill becoming agony.
Jesse Smith is still draft age--
Talking tough of wets and niggers.
Like us, working for a wage,
But one of those who figures
He's going to be the boss one day--
Watch you don't get in his way.
Jesse wears his hunting knife,
Tattoo, earring, iron cross;
Black eyes worn by Jesse's wife
Every time he hits the sauce.
At the shop he kisses ass.
Now I ask, does he have class?
Like a fool I shot my mouth
Off one too many times.
Jesse's twelve points kneecap south--
He packed the load with dimes.
Oh boy, Jesse goes for broke--
Jesse, can't you take a joke?
Can't get closer than I've drawn it:
Jesse draws a bead;
I made a point, he pushed me on it--
Can't just let it bleed:
Running with the Ku Klux Klan
Somehow can't make you a man.
"White Power," flew from Jesse's lips,
He must have heard me say, "White Trash."
He swore he takes no shit from flips--
Came on redneck in a flash,
Yelling, "Fucker, let's get down,"
When I called the clown a clown.
CB, spotlight, four-wheel drive--
Jesse burns the cross.
How's a white boy to survive
Unless he's acting boss?
Cruises at the midnight hour
On the border with White Power.
I saw Jesse, Monday, hey!
He made the morning news.
A missing ear. What could I say
Except I guess you lose.
Que pasó? You say your Buck
Just ran clean shit out of luck?
Your buddies heard the puppy yelp
But didn't come in time to help?
Who'd you catch and try to nail?
I see they nailed you.
Met your match on some dark trail?
What's a good old boy to do?
Riding for the Ku Klux Klan,
You thought, somehow, made you a man.
That something dirty's getting rinsed
Down the drain to leave us clean.
I know you could have been convinced
Life didn't have to be so mean:
A sunrise to illuminate
A life you could appreciate.
It's looking like I'm using you--
Dying. To make things right.
If it's so we're losing you
To a false dawnlight,
I'll mix your dying with solutions,
Precipitating revolutions.
Two skull fractures, hemotoma--
Broken vessels in the brain.
Joey's lying in a coma,
Dead to constant throbbing pain.
The coma's where he might release
His body to eternal peace.
Who knows? Maybe fast asleep
Between the broken cells--
Anchored, but he's anchored deep,
His genius, empty shells.
Surface, Joey. Hey! Come to.
We've some numbers left to do.
Joey never made up plans;
Thrived on spontaneity:
Had his heroes, friends and fans,
Had a sense of irony:
"Funny, ain't it, life's a bitch,
Tryin' to spend it getting rich."
Joey gave it all away:
Bathroom walls and picnic tables
Carried what he had to say.
That won't get him better lables
Or even buy him any time
Like a copyrighted rhyme.
In a trailer parked in back
Of Dick's, he stayed there free.
Lots better than his sister's shack
He lived in town on "B".
What a treat to live alone--
First place that he called his own.
Joey drank. He loved to drink.
Drinking gave him feelings close
To happiness and peace, I think,
But nearly took an overdose
For him to get past feelings that
Bad luck had got his life down pat.
Cataracts clouded eyesight some--
Lost some front teeth, back ones too.
You'd think he'd head for martyrdom--
Going blind, a drag to chew.
Self-pity wasn't Joey's cup
Of poison, nor was giving up.
But he never acted tough,
I never saw him mean;
I never saw him strut his stuff
Or ever cause a scene.
Except one night he took a piss
Downtown on some edifice,
Observed obscene by Officer Mouse.
Since Joey lived behind Dick's house
Mouse thought he nabbed a hoodlum, right?
Mouse was feeling good that night,
Watching Joey as he scissored
'Cross the street to drain his lizard.
He'd been drinking with a friend
At the park--the heads were locked.
Midnight. Who could he offend?
Right, the Mouse, his gun half-cocked,
Making Joe inflate balloons
And rattle Porky's looney tunes.
Joey couldn't pass for shit--
He was really drunk.
Mouse just had to do his bit,
Seeing Joey flunk
The tests he'd given him to do.
The Mouse wrote up a charge or two.
I won't pretend this was the first
Official confirmation
Made of Joey's heavy thirst.
The judge gave him probation.
Cut him loose on one condition
Which ensured no repetition:
Every day he had to swallow
A drug to make him sick
If he drank; and so he'd follow
The regimen to kick
His habit, he would take it
At the clinic--couldn't fake it.
Hanging in there, hanging out.
It's Friday evening, warm.
He's there, all right, but I'd no doubt
He wasn't up to form.
I thought he looked a little bad--
Gave Joey all the change I had.
Faith and Dick were out there cruising--
Early, still, it's half past seven.
Prevy's Chevy's what they're using
For a rolling piece of heaven.
Joey sees them driving by,
So he whistles to them, Hi.
Dick sees Joey, hangs a "U".
Gears down, honking twice.
I know what they're going to do--
A stunt called Tumbling Dice.
Done in front of Dick's a lot.
I've seen them do it. Pretty hot.
A smile came to Joey's face
Because he's feeling better now;
Strolling to a parking space,
Joey's going to show us how
You can be the great pretender
Getting over on a fender.
Horn blows and the heads are turning--
People looking up in shock;
Brakes lock up and rubber's burning--
Joey had been taking stock
Of the distance and the speed--
Giving himself plenty lead.
I was waiting for the king.
It happened like a dream.
Joey, just about to spring--
I heard somebody scream:
Down he went, his knees gave way.
Antabuse had had its say.
The bumper caught him in the head
Right before the Nomad stopped.
Joey skidded like a sled--
Another hit as his head whopped
Off the curb, a solid thud--
Head split open, leaking blood.
Dick jumped out, saw what he'd done.
Choked the sob that rose
From his chest. Another one.
Bending over Joey, froze
Up as he saw cops arrive
Seconds after Joey's dive.
"What now?" Rat asked, certain pleasure
Bubbling under false concern.
Fingers fondled his tape measure--
Said off-hand, "They'll never learn.
Give the rescue-truck a call
And chalk one up to alcohol."
The sobs that Dick had first suppressed
Broke through and came out rage.
A scream exploded from his chest--
Cops moved to center stage
Leaving Joey lying there.
Dick cried, "Jesus, don't you care?"
They didn't much. Put cuffs on Dick
Which only made him hotter.
Rat went at him with his stick
And growled at him, "Manslaughter."
They took their time with Joey, though.
They just let his headwound flow.
In a bed Joe's growing frail,
Curled like a fetus.
Dick is heartsick, stuck in jail
Thinking, when they beat us
It can hurt us nowhere near
As much as like what happened here.
Joey, how you've got me talking,
Meaning, don't leave friends alone
Prevy always had a plan--
Prevy's cool, no way scared,
Through my kitchen door he comes,
I get us both a coffee cup--
I'm honored Prevy's here tonight.
"Even though my father's white,"
Filling up a bowl to share
"You people settled colonies--
Sent out searching to destroy
"With settlers we all got on fine--
"Then as now--free enterprise
"How many of your people know
Apaches fought and stayed alive,
"Sheridan, the Union's hero
"And Custer was a candidate
"He burned tepees and every pot
"Now it's Termination
Which has always seen us equal
The bowl was out so now I poured
"Our Centennial to boot.
My ass goodbye as go with you.
"Tell me when I've ever lied--
Like you're holding hands with Death,
When I'd rather see you walking
Up and saying, "Save your breath.
Pushed my way back from a coma,
To make them come up on their own.
PREVY
June 25, 1976
Prevy's cruising in his Chevy,
Coming down the hill.
Nomad stops, I'm hoping Prevy
Has some time to kill--
His stories always knock me out:
Sucker punches this boy scout.
Backs his Nomad up my drive,
Just in case the Ku Klux Klan
Cruises by and spots his ride
Sitting just outside my door--
They've tried to chase him down before.
No redneck's gaining ground.
And if they do, then he's prepared--
Won't have to turn his ride around.
I didn't know it then, but he
Had special plans that night for me.
Handing me Cold Duck.
"Holy cow," I bang my gums,
"Tonight we're both in luck.
Tonight the scarlet drake is ruling--
I've got another Cold Duck cooling."
Prevy pours the red champagne
And lifts his cup of Cold Duck up
To celebrate the last campaign
Of General Custer--Prevy's toast
Is to a brave Cheyenne outpost.
One hundred years ago today
The Seventh Calvary lost a fight--
In fact they all got blown away.
That ended Custer's dirty war
Still buried under frontier lore.
Said Prevy who's a breed,
"No way feel white tonight--
I feel like a bleed:
Reservation born and bred--
I followed when my uncles led."
(It's getting serious now)
He said, "Tonight I'll tell you where
You whites went wrong and how
You only got down half the story
While getting all our territory.
Got funny with the land;
You tried to bring us to our knees
Whenever you'd expand--
Hudson Bay fur traders set
Rewards for scalps the soldier get
People in the way out west;
Started with the Iroquois
And got to all the rest;
Women, children--bounty's ten;
Twenty dollars for the men.
Trading on each other's skills.
But when there's something there to mine,
Like the black Dakota Hills,
Or a railroad line to build,
We were moved or chased and killed.
Is what you called it. Nothing's free.
Its business was to organize
A sure-fire guarantee
To profit off the sea and land.
None of us could understand.
The real reason why
They slaughtered all the buffalo?
What it took to pacify
Us on the plains--no food supply.
We'd come in or starve and die.
But natives to the coast
Barely managed to survive
The Father, Son and Holy Ghost
The Spaniards brought--and coast tribes lost
Their ways. Then lives as Yankees crossed.
In your Civil War,
Started population zero--
A general standing for
What's summed up in what he said,
'Only good Indian's one that's dead.'
For president. He'd chase
Redskins first to set them straight.
Another mental case.
How many whites have you heard speak
About this General at Sand Creek?
Was smashed to pieces, left in chards--
Village young and old were shot.
The Seventh left its warm regards:
Mutilating all our dead;
Survivors searching for kins' head.
That leaves us with our skin;
You take back the reservation
And once again you win:
When we bow to you, we fear it
Means the loss of tribal spirit
When it came to things communal;
Treaties made all had a sequel:
Your business-like tribunal
Drove us from our sole resource:
Land and spirit, meet divorce."
Another cup of Duck.
Prevy passed, "I can't afford
The chance the cops might fuck
Me over now, I'm going by
The rez for our 4th of July.
One hundred 25ths of June--
Tonight's the night we're going to hoot.
Friday night and travelers' moon.
You're coming too." "You're asking this
White boy? Might as well just kiss
From everything you've said tonight,
And every word I know is true--
Tonight the skins don't need a white.
I'd go with you if I were red."
Prevy looked at me and said,
Deep down we're all red inside."