Vanishing Elephants and Good Coffee

I started reading The Dharma Bums the other day, and got a strange comment from a co-worker- "Nobody reads Kerouac any more; that was the 1950's". Not a bad point, today is definitely not the 50s. I wasn't alive then, so I don't have much of a basis for comparison. I really like the book, though. Prior to this I had read On the Road and really enjoyed it. It seemed almost sad at points, not what I thought it would be. None of that "crazy, man" kind of dumb optimism one often thinks of with the Beats. I missed it by about 20 years, but very much relate to the ideas of the Beats. But that was then, this is now. Nonetheless, it's a good thing to keep that kind of hope alive.


A Lesson

The elephant vanishes-fog
at dawn, bald-headed monks
In self-imposed unity
Where is the hot dog man, to
Make me one with everything
Late night outside the Polo Club, a
fortunate meeting
Holy men dim their lights and
mingle with the dust
To walk amongst ordinary virtuous men
A chill wind-ours- this time
Is nothing but a clockwork bird


(This one may need some explanation- the Polo Club is a drag club and gay bar in Hartford- no, my bread isn't buttered on that side, but at the time I wrote this a friend of mine was working there and took me along one night. I had some very interesting conversations with a number of people, and the bartender mixed a mean rum and coke. After we left, I had a huge hankering for a chili dog, and lo and behold, there was a man with a hot dog cart! I was joined by one of the drag queens who had performed that night, and we sat and had our chili dogs on a nearby bench and just kind of shot the breeze for a while. It's the little things like that that stick with you for some reason. A real sweet guy/gal, too, and I really enjoyed our conversation. The chili dog was fantastic, too).