I'm aiming for the
jackpot
to win the lottery
I'm not just panning for gold
in the California of my dreams
I want to be a starlet with my
name emblazoned on
Hollywood and Vine
the royal road that
makes me unconscious
now I'm in a covered wagon
in Death Valley
waiting for the waters to part
so I can join that 40 year
endurance walk
along the way I'll worship
Werner Erhard
and practice TM
read Stephen King's
"It," embrace Symbionese Liberation
and pull the shades of my windows down
as Kitty Genovese is stabbed
by Winston Moseley
the Manson Family
kills Sharon Tate
all this while pursuing
my dreams of the night before
the familiar faces at the Candy Kitchen
are gone and the sassy European waitress
only gives me $7 change on a 20 after
I purchase a $12 pack of Gauloises
I open the pack and place one in the side of
my mouth like Michel Simon in Renoir's
"Boudu Sauvé des Eaux" (1932)
fading
now dead
lucky we have a plot
Moses?
my savior
or urban legend
doesn't even sound angry
with me
wow!
still I'm beginning to lose it
after all these years
of wandering past P.C. Richard
and Dunkin' Donuts
coming to rest in the parking lot of
the Southampton Burger King
opposite the 7-Eleven
where I obtain my
Impossible Whopper
either me or my dreams are buried there
Francis Levy lives in Wainscott and Manhattan. His novel "The Wormhole Society" is recently out, with a graphic novel version illustrated by Joseph Silver.