A Few Copies Remain of the Bonnie & Clyde Files
In April I released, The Bonnie and Clyde Files: How Two Senior Dogs Saved a Middle Aged Man, an account of my experiences over the past couple of years as I battled to stave off personal extinction. I published only 300 copies of the book and have a few left that I want to promote here. I think it’s the best, most honest thing I have ever written. I really don’t know any other book like it.
I have larger aspirations for The Bonnie and Clyde Files but haven’t figured out how to do that yet. This micro publishing run may be the last word.
I invite you to support me and an independent Oregon publisher by purchasing direct from my web site, nestuccaspitpress.com
The book features 10 poetic interludes, where I channeled Walt Whitman to make sense of the madness and inhumanity I witnessed, scenes I will never forget:
Below is an excerpt:
I lean against the wall
inside the probation office.
Joint is packed.
Reprobates are jacked.
I read Walt Whitman
at random
waiting for a form
to set me free.
It’s come to that:
a form for freedom
in a democracy.
Can you believe
they want it in longhand?
To my right
two couples
make out
before their
meetings and drug tests.
Nothing surprises in here
not the sparkled jeans
nor the man reading Macbeth,
not the dog food coupons
to feed human beings
nor the reek of fish.
Okay, this making out does
these two couples!
It’s like that poem
“Kissing” by Dorianne Laux.
A stanza reads:
They are kissing
to begin the
world again. Nothing
can stop them…
they are doing what they have to
do
to survive the worst
It’s the one human act
the State can’t take from us.
Even in here:
fluorescent lights
plastic chairs
gray carpet.
It’s an act of secret rebellion
smack dab in the open
face to face
in our faceless times
not a reckoning
but a puckering.
I read another line from Walt.
He writes a lot about kissing
but never uses the word.
I watch the couples,
the two women
angled toward me,
their eyes closed.
One has slipped her feet
out of flip flops.
She is barefoot
and kissing
in the probation office.