A few talismans arranged at random
on a small redbrown table with a thick gloppy finish

a paper plane made of shiny silvery paper
a yellow table tennis ball settled into a knot
a single jack, once red, but with the paint chipping to reveal silver steel
a mixed tape a friend made back when we were still friends
a bit of shriveled orange peel
a black crow feather
a large swath of the Milky Way Galaxy
a clipping of God’s toenail even though that’s doubly impossible
an empty brown beer bottle without any paper left that I still sometimes think of returning for that long overdue dime
an audiophile of something outrageous Jesus once said to the Buddha when they were still pretty young and given to gloating
a

Never mind.

Rewind.

Start from

fuzzy caterpillar scrunch fore to aft
up the pussy willow branch
next to the river
where we lost

Not so fast so far.

Restart.

Start from

dollar bill kissed goodbye
by his thin wan lips
then handed over
by his long mottled veiny hands
to her with pink fingernails manning the mechanical cash register
ca Ching

nope

Alive or dead
he’s already failed
The bounty and the poison
The thug and his lackeys
The hamburger and its special sauce
The lie and its symphony
Never mind
Alive or dead
it was over before he started
it was over before Vesuvius rained down that awful powder
it was over before the asteroid dust blackened the sky, froze the earth, tipped over the thunder lizards
it was over before Jesus stepped through the eye of the needle to thread every destiny contained within this spacetime, which he did while wearing a Christmas shirt figuring a wreath of thorns, which he wore with irony, which was not a metaphysical irony, but merely a teenage coming of age claiming humor for him and his friends and their generation and the stars to come
it was over when I thought I was Elvis Presley bending the big steel microphone towards my long white teeth and the crowd went crazy, feeling the moment eternal, glowing with the passion of well-fed youth.