he walked inside from out of doors 

out of doors at 1234   a day of sparkling sunlight and obscene blue skies
 

inside  everything fell into silhouettes  varying shades of darkness 

the lump on the couchlump was John

sitting exactly where he sat drinking coffee when he left to put mail in the mailbox on the street

John didnt like that he called him John

John now preferred Jack 
he said it sounded harder  tougher

--   I agree you need help in the hard department  

but I met you as John as youll always be John to me

Its your given Christian name

--   Given

I can change it if I want

--   You can  And you can legally

And you can call yourself Nails for all I care                                                                                          

but Ill always call you John

John was always flitting between things  buying into whatever the fad was to appeal to anyone and everyone 

he had an indecent desire to be liked

they had gotten together to ride south to St Pete to visit a friend  Frankie  in the bughouse there

Frankie was hard  he was Johns epitome of hard  and tough

Frankie was in the bughouse because he was incorrigible
his mother didnt have the sense and schooling for that word
she got it from the head psychiatrist at St Petes who got a good long look at her ass as she walked past him one day in town as he was having drinks with visiting colleagues  

Frankie told his Maw the Doc got a whiff of her

--   Cant you be polite
--   I aint the one snorting whiffs  Maw

and then all of a sudden Doc was around falling all over himself to help with Frankie

how couldnt he have issues  his father abandoned his mother and him   

Frankie desperately needed a father figure and a fathers iron hand

Frankie broke the Docs face with his iron hand 

the Doctor rather than prefer charges  --  Throw Frankie away  --  recommended that he could personally counsel him through his overt psychological issues

the Judge  like most the Up-and-Comers in the Community  believed the Doctor a Pillar of the Society in St Pete and readily gratefully turned the charge of Frankie over to the Doctor

with Frankie inside the hospital
the bughouse 
contained         

the Doctors whiffing became unrestrained 

Frankies Maws gratitude was unrestrained as well

they married inside six months 

the Doctor had Frankie and his Maw exactly where he wanted them

Frankie was always three sheets fucked up to the wind when they visited him

whenever they visited they had to wait in the lobby until the Doctor saw them first 
take his valuable time to prepare them for Frankies current state of mind  the Dos and the Donts of what they were allowed to talk to him about(whatever they wanted  --  You can suck our cocks Doc)

and then they had to contend with that Cheshire Cat grin on his mug 

though  probably unbeknownst to him
                                                               the nice thing about his Cheshire grinning was it brought out the series of scars about his eyes and across the bridge of his nose that Frankie gave him

No 

      they didnt mind waiting the two or three or four hours before the Doctor showed up    --  Im so busy boys  You should call ahead so I know when youre coming  --  to see those fine white lines and know exactly how he got them

they learned to take solace when they could

Frankie was fucked

they wondered over the last year they had been coming to see him if he ever have had any concurrent thoughts or ideations

the wisecracker he was  wasnt home

original thought went on a long coffee break and had someone on the inside working the time clock for it

they quit going to see his mother 
she was never home 
she attended luncheons and affairs at the Country Club                                                                                     

she was the attractive face and body standing-in for the Respected Doctor

she wouldnt even answer their calls when they telephoned to check-up on Frankie between visits

anything they needed to know about Frankie  the housekeeper said  the Doctor could advise them    
Ive been assured you have his number

Yeah  they had his number

like Frankie had his number

but conveniently everyone else including his Maw looked in the other direction
away from the troubled juvenile delinquent 
who had been tempered
and now  was no longer trying

but Frankie hid his one last Try 

kept it to himself(he didnt even ask them which hand it was in)

and when opportunity knocked he answered

he Tried                                                                                                                                               

he was successful 

he hung himself with a torn bed sheet

there was a lavish funeral

they buried him under a huge headstone                                                                                                                     

it made everyone in St Pete feel better

he and John didnt make it 

they had drinks in Minneapolis in a joint down by the river they liked when the three of them were running hard 

and hard breaks hard

they didnt show

                             because anybody who knew Frankie knew he wanted to be cremated

to be vanquished   from the face of “this miserable planet"

2345,  Wednesday,  24  6. 15

To-day I am reminded(Im old enough) 

of Chicago cops riding on horseback across campus braining student anti-war demonstrators with their billyclubs

and the words that came out of their mouths around their bits

the same words  out of the mouths of some infuriated World War II and Korean vets 

touting their Patriotism and bravery over Ours 

and those words again out of the ever-slapping gums of Republicans and any Religions Book-bangers who sided

against humanists liberals and War-foes

 

To-day I want to remind them of their words   and hand them back

America  Love It or Leave It

2052,  Marriage Equality Friday,  26  6. 15

jiggery-pokery*

what the fuck is that supposed to mean

I mean  Ive spoken English all my life and enjoyed my failed attempts at French Russian and Spanish

but 

jiggery-pokery

just when and where was I supposed to be when I stuck in my thumb and pulled out a plum

aside from this very morning 

                                                when I read Scalias(Moe of the Three Stooges(Alito Thomas) wasnt happy    wait wait

I may have been premature    perhaps better  the Marx(Yikes!) Brothers   Scalia as Groucho and the closer proximity

of curly-haired mute Harpo played convincingly by Thomas  and Chicos dead-ringer  Alito) minority dissent of the Supreme Courts 6 - 3 decision in King v. Burwell

                                                                                 wouldnt you think Id have come away with jiggery-pokery sooner

when I read it I wasnt sure I wasnt guilt of it at some earlier time in my life and probably should have sought out either

a priest and his confessional  afterwards lit votive candles  three-for-a-quarter  or probably have gone directly to the downtown clinic  Do Not Pass Go  for a thorough examination  fingers and coughs  or a hefty dose of antibiotics

then the panic drifted out of my head

after all

it was Scalia                                         

scabrously Conservative

I really shouldnt be that frightened

he probably didnt get his way

I wouldnt want to be ahead of him in line at a Italian deli for the remaining heel and last pound of capocollo he and I both wanted 

a snarling displeased Scalia rearing up on his hind legs and snapping at nonexistent flies at overhearing the white clad clerks remark to me

Sir  Id say  Ive aced you and my bellys hunger for capicola is equal to yours  You should have arrived earlier

the Three Wise Monkeys  See no evil Hear no evil Speak no evil  were willing to upset a portion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for millions of Americans over four words of the better than nine hundred page text

as if hed kick a grrl out of bed for eating graham crackers or overturn his sexual desire for a woman because she had an odd mole on the inside of her bicep or a nondescript wart on her hand

Hell  he had a grade school buddy who arrived a month into session  the new kid  who had warts on the knuckles of his hands  

he took his hand up and shook it vigorously without pause on their introduction 

other classmates refused because they thought his warts were communicable

You eidgets  he said  if they were he wouldnt be allow into school

No no no

                 I valued Scalias robust disappointment

because I had it in my head this was going to be nothing  compared to the braying disappointment Scalia was going to share with everyone who would listen to him when the Court passed Marriage Equality

actually 

 

I was quite excited to see if his skull would explode     “Pure Applesauce”

evening,  Thursday,  25  6.15

*deceitful or dishonest behavior 

http://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/obamacare-survives-the-scalia-treatment

a good day to be alive

a portion of Justice Kennedy’s appraisal and Majority opinion:

                                                                 "No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.

It is so ordered."

1453,  Friday  26  6. 15