get up jonah

(i woke up thinking about turkish drummers

it didn't take long

i don't know much about turkish drummers

but it made me think of germany and the guy who sold me cigarettes

who'd been in the afghan secret police

who made the observation

that it's hard

to live

then i was reminded of the proprietor of a vietnamese restaurant in quebec who used to be head of the secret police in da nang

and it occurred to me i was thinking about all this stuff to keep from thinking about something else. isn't that just what secret police are all about?)

somebody stands in a window

watches the river roll

trains rumble in the foreground

with the weight of approaching dawn

flames from the refinery

rise broken

red and riveting

and the high vault of heaven

looks far away and cold

there's howling in the factory yard

there's pounding in my head

i'm swollen up with unshed tears

bloated like the dead. blood and ashes

time burning

on the skyline dark against the stars

a solitary horseman

waiting

lashed to the wheel

whipping into the storm

get up

jonah

it's your time to be born