THE POTHEAD IN SOME KIND OF AGREEMENT WITH THE ALCOHOLIC

I smoke alone ... perhaps you drink alone ... so as not to be alone ... though we begin alone each time by choice ... you drink I smoke so as to stop one time to begin another ... we create a precinct whether sacred or profane will be seen in a third kind of time call it judgment time ... here we have sometimes hints of that judgment in our own good sense and none so prominent throughout as the demand for moderation and the thirst for communion ... not to be alone but not on my terms or your terms ... on neither extreme ... but on the right terms on the terms in between ... having seen the outside time its subjects and predicates in disarray we retire to this inside time to begin the conversation again ... but not I want to emphasize by talking to ourselves ... these conversations are not a simple and immediate delusion ... we have to work a lot before we get to that conclusion ... they are french doors ... they open on the patio ... the patio that opens on the garden ... the garden surrounded by patios ... from books that open to symphonies that begin ... to prayer that never ends ... the first garden