GET BEHIND THE MULE

pin your ear to the wisdom post
pin your eye to the line
never let the weeds get higher than the garden
always keep a sapphire in your mind
always keep a diamond in your mind

[tom waits, "get behind the mule"
from "mule variations", 1999]

TWO LA CHAIMS FOR A SODDEN EID

1.
the holy drinker cracks his third for auld
lang syne, and crackling for his rosh hashanah.

2.
let boland raingods piss on this his cold
and unmooned mecca, let medina call.
he'll slit his styx-dipped tendons just to fall
on trojan soil: tonight he is no runner.