the Dharma is... [and] when a beer costs a dollar...

the Dharma is... 

~ 

more than 2000 yrs. of yesterdays 
ago 
a son of nameless immigrants, a native 
of Asia, weighed the likelihoods of grief & adversity 
to those of grace & good fortune, and with 
godlike perspective and feral strength 
he gave a title to that circumstance 
and that title was 
the Dharma. 

the stubbornness of death through energy 
the fugitive, benevolent yearning for balance 
and altruism -- all the marks and requirements 
of & for our fragile victories 
until there are none to be counted: the 
name of something present but unnamable. 

the Dharma exercises itself without permission 
or encouragement or really any deeper logic 
than the obvious & necessary 
role of entropy disintegrating what 
cannot be held... if she is welcoming as 
a female, indeed, she is confident 
as a man likely to implore a million questions 
with insuppressible demand for response. 

the Dharma covets and captures 
whatever lame, neglected thing you might imagine. 

even cheerfully verbose drunks lose their pens 
and lighters and miscount money or 
say hello to old books or find sacks of cans 
they weren't looking for, slightly 
cut-up toes, not really, the funny multi- 
verse skip of intentional movement 
(only) briefly sabotaging 
your silly drunk love and 
discerning the looks of the appreciative 
from the looks of 
the lecherous and woefully annoying 
                                              incorrigible 
                                                      fucked. 

however, the Dharma is 
not 
invulnerable to memory. 
whatever influences form 
has the advantage of itself. 
all gods who say so might be. 

as far as I'm concerned, at this moment, 
another 2000 yrs. should pass yet and that feral 
inclination will remain. 





**** 
when a beer costs a dollar... 

~ 

when a beer costs a dollar, has 
the quick approval of your limbic/cortical 
network 
you might figure that's about 20 
cans, how far is twenty cans? maybe 
in one or two places -- 
maybe not in seven. but the goal is to 
delay drinking, remember. 

I don't really mean to be a greedy person 
despite doing a ton of things associated 
with greedy people--ho ho--but there's 
a fleeting sense of status and wealth and 
easy dirty luck, 
something difficult to express but effortless 
to identify 
if it's happened to you, personally. 

they say being a drug-addict is the hardest job 
in the world but...I get to drink at 
my job, if nothing else. (the 
pay is lousy, sometimes, and you're never 
positive 
if the store is open.) 

but there is grace to be found 
in the world that is more porous and 
generous than the deepest wail of your heart 
can imagine. 

like inferring the rare, often dismissive 
slips of wisdom 
in the greater film noire to be found: 
you kind of discover a more inexpensive 'you'. 
you move your own hand again just so. 

after that, the cashier gets it, and 
you start looking for 
more. 





**** 


























































































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