Best Friends with a Chainsaw

behind everything I do
there is a slice, a cut,
a tree, a special finish
that leaves Vermont for sale.

I quit smoking
before I started,
but I drink with the best
memory of Kerouac.

Shake hands with the world
when you get a chance,
and try to forget me, but fail;
that's when the wolf comes in.

everydamnday we see dreams
and I am just sewing them together
like an idiot alterations clerk in Chinatown
with an unraveling old sweater.