The Truth.

[Toothlessjoe]

He decides

to let it all go by, to pretend this
time it will go away, in time,

la tira de la tierra

--he doesn't

even attempt
to cloak

these intentions with clever phrases
rhythmic vibrations that transcend a first
language or iimpression or

self-imposed syllabic quota:

Q: how many half-rhymes and lingual tricks
does it take to kill an armadillo with human hair?

He had an imaginary friend, once
who told him he was a ninja and
the most honorable death was
dictated by free will and

pain

A: That depends on the conversation between
David Foster Wallace and Joyce



and lasers and stones
that looked like skulls
found on the rockbed in the summer
of a creek infected with MRSA
and who knows what else

They skipped and hopped and flew and
we were happy then, having saved

the world and ourselves
another day before

we knew it would end:

the porn in the storm drains;
the boy who dug our chalk;
the dog that fell from the bridge
and broke its leg
for whom we stole food
and baseball cards and
thought we'd be famous and

before the disease culminated
of which we knew but never acknowledged

and before an end came
and came and we continued

for now, until then.