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El Diablo Nuevo

Destitute in vintage suit, all pinstripes
point downtown. When we're out of cigarettes

he walks like a rifle, trigger 
unstifled, to the full-blooded Amoco-
his pockets all sold-out of skunk

weed and micro-plaid acid. Among his fine
features, no counterfeits: hand lost at cheek,
all straight
teeth, he is a most beautiful drug addict.

When we're caught in the rain,
                     the rain doubles.

Way out of town we wade where my dad's creek forks.
He accepts all
flattery. All day on Saturdays. His every tattoo
lavished with it. Swimmer,

swimmer, take the sweltering
day anonymously under
water, to river, to sea. Dictator of naked, narcosis

of nitrogen. Pisser in the deep end, tread down
the rapture, the whorl of my thrumbprint.

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