Forty Links of Chain (a poem)

fox eyes from abilene — garbage poet from the
greyhound circuit & who has a feeling for the most lost
pieces of frost & boast of glass jaw & grampa
playing tiddlywinks & finks in the sinks & the barf &
gook in the book
of his cook, the ma & he's back in town
screwing around
with his hairlip down. . .he needs a dime &
writing rhyme You
dont have to guess. . .you know
the rest/ watch his nose! you can see where he goes
by offering to pay his dues — fox eyes, he's
got lotza blues — Tiny the chick with the wet newspaper,
she used to bring french fries to the mechanics &
whose right arm once went deaf & dumb
(it can happen to some)
she sees fox eyes come

climbing out of the stop sign & he's got a hangover on top of it & she say "oh great grooby fox eyes, lead me to the garbage" & he take her by the

lilywhitecottonpickin

hand & she say "yeah man i be a yellow monkey ooweel" & he say "jus you folly me baby snooks! jus you folly me & you feel fine!" & she say"giddy up & hi ho silver & i feel irish!" & both go off & get a bus schedule & she saying all the time "steady big fella! steady!" while on the other side of the street this mailman who looks like Shirley temple & who's carrying a lollypop stops & looks at a cloud & just then the sky, he gets kinda pissed & decides to throw his weight around a little & bloop a tulip falls dead — the mailman starts talking to a parking meter & fox eyes, he say "it sure wasnt like this in abilene" & its a hurricane & a bus reading baltimore leaves them in a total mess — she falls on her knees & she say "i'm a fifthy" & fox eyes he say "go back to florida baby there aint nothing here for a city grill like you can do" & the chick she does a handstand & she say "i'm canadian!" & he say "get outa here & go to florida" & she starts reciting fox eyes poems about salvation & the loony bin, strikes in the coloring book factory & Christmas when they wrapped him in a shirt & he say "Whoa! Get Out a Here! Isteal Yomoney Oowee Jesus Grill! You Some Shamp!"

& she moans & groans—& she say "oh, i really do love life &
love love & love living & he say "grooby! wa! wail!" &
she say "dont you understand" & she starts making this terrible
scene right there in the middle of the street. . .Tiny — i met Tiny
later at an outrageous party — she was sitting under a clock & i say
"you need an umbrella, friend" & she say "oh no! not another one!"
& she's got a new boyfriend now & he looks like machine gun kelly. . .
fox eyes — he lost all his money in a furnace — when last heard from
was riding fast freight out of salinas in a pile of lettuce &
still trying to collect unemployment. . .me? i made a special trip
downtown to get some graveyard figures — but it wasnt rainin &
there was no buses going to baltimore/ just a broken jawed parking meter,
a water logged pen & a bunch of old Shirley temple pictures
with her neck in a noose was all that i could find

look, i dont care if you are
a merchant marine, the next time
you start telling me i dont
walk right, i'm gonna get some
surfer to slap your face. i think
youre being very paranoid about
the whole thing... see you at the
wedding

stompingly yours Lazy Henry