They decorated the<\/p>\n
probation office for Christmas:<\/p>\n
Stockings, snowmen, Santas.<\/p>\n
Green garland and green lights<\/p>\n
shaped like a noose.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Stillness reigns.<\/p>\n
Christmas pills.<\/p>\n
Christmas black eyes.<\/p>\n
No baying yet.<\/p>\n
I can’t write a poem without baying,<\/p>\n
so I won’t.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I’ve got Walt with me.<\/p>\n
Was Walt into Christmas?<\/p>\n
I bet he wielded his eel spear<\/p>\n
to bring home eel<\/p>\n
for Christmas dinner.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
What would Walt make<\/p>\n
of his country today?<\/p>\n
Of course he’d be in prison,<\/p>\n
doing what he implied<\/p>\n
in Leaves of Grass<\/i>.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Walt was always singing<\/p>\n
praises for America.<\/p>\n
Can you sing like that<\/p>\n
for America anymore?<\/p>\n
You can certainly bay.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We assemble around the table.<\/p>\n
A new man<\/p>\n
already in the act of disappearing.<\/p>\n
I hear Americans gently baying:<\/p>\n
I can’t go to church.<\/p>\n
I can’t ride horses?<\/p>\n
I can’t go see cattle with my dad?<\/p>\n
I have to live in a stable.<\/p>\n
I want to use so bad.<\/p>\n
I need a job.<\/p>\n
I can’t take a welding class?<\/p>\n
I can’t live near a bus stop?<\/p>\n
I can’t go to AA seven days a week.<\/p>\n
I live in a culvert.<\/p>\n
I can’t burn but I can take pills?<\/p>\n
I spent the night on the roof.<\/p>\n
I’m becoming more sallow.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sallow! <\/i><\/p>\n
A man said sallow<\/i>.<\/p>\n
I heard it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He was wearing<\/p>\n
a greasy brown hoodie<\/p>\n
with the hood on.<\/p>\n
I could barely see his face<\/p>\n
(and it was sallow),<\/p>\n
but I heard sallow<\/i><\/p>\n
and I listened.<\/p>\n
There is a difference.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I’m hearing<\/p>\n
Americans baying<\/p>\n
in this soundproof studio<\/p>\n
and I’m recording it,<\/p>\n
mixing, (no over dubbing),<\/p>\n
producing an album<\/p>\n
of an undetermined<\/p>\n
musical genre<\/p>\n
that somehow<\/p>\n
I must release<\/p>\n
because Americans need<\/p>\n
to hear their<\/p>\n
fellow Americans bay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
They decorated the probation office for Christmas: Stockings, snowmen, Santas. Green garland and green lights shaped like a noose. Stillness reigns. Christmas pills. Christmas black eyes. No baying yet. I can’t write a poem without baying, so I won’t. I’ve got Walt with me. Was Walt into Christmas? I bet he wielded his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3458,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,42],"tags":[88,364,470],"class_list":["post-3456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","category-poetry","tag-poetry","tag-probation-poem","tag-probation-poetry","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3456"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3459,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3456\/revisions\/3459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}