I dug out my old leather jacket

Its gleaming grin of epaulets and buckles

smiled to me from behind too few reminders

of battles, waged righteous and infantile

I tore through the pockets

searching for scraps of

all the late nights, screaming my

uninformed philosophies into the moon face

of God and the Ghetto Bird

but found only rawhide, lint,

and an address:



West of Refinement

Up the block from Anxious

Forever past 2 in the morning

and always 1 month shy

of 25



My eyes couldn’t recall the direction

but these worn feet

and 34 years of slumped shoulders

knew the way back to this place strictly

from muscle memory

This

is where I found him

A simple studio, white walls bare

to better reflect himself

A futon bed post, notched into splinters

from every one night stand, propped up by pride and

eyes too free of experience, but

he doesn’t look surprised to see me



That’s my jacket, old man

You look kinda stupid in it

I don’t where you found it

and I don’t have much, but

I’ll trade you

What do you want for it?



All right



First

I’ll take that middle finger out your tongue

It ain’t nothing but a limp digit if fear

is the only reason it ever flies

and while you’re at it,

pull that curled lip back over your canines

they’re nowhere near long enough

to bite with yet



Next

I want that anthem in your throat

and every notebook you shout it into

It reads like a ransom demand,

all faded edges and stolen letters

wringing the ink from headlines to

fill your vulgar pen and pockets



You can keep

the Neverland in your irises

the dilated Lost Boys of aborted brain cells

the whole Morrison/Nietzche/Fellini

mystical death trip

I know where that leads

I’ve seen that road tread free of gravel

by every shock haired, steel booted,

leather clad, jack booted jerkwad this side

of fuck all and back

Death is boring

until you’ve lived some



Gimme the lust in your guts

the cauldron in your chest

the bellow of your lungs

I

finally know how to use them

They’re going to waste while you

sit here and bullshit the universe

the way we always did



I didn’t come here to trade

I came to lay this time and place

to casket

I am leaving you buried between these walls

bereft of blood boil and balls

stripped shivering

Armor is meant to protect the living

not adorn the dead

And this jacket

Well this motherfucker

is coming with me