Denver, Colorado

it feels like we weren’t even there, as if nothing happened.
like we stayed in a hotel and then rode on out. right now there’s only four of us in the van, mike had to fly out to a naca conference so he’ll meet up with us in flagstaff, and derrick rejoins us this evening in amarillo, so it’s just me, baz, buddy, and dan. our family is so small right now.

the show last night was a little disappointing. we had rented out a space called the bug theatre. we showed up and it’s a lovely space, 100-150, longer than it is wider, the stage is a just a big black box, 3 feet high and deep, with a tall red curtained entranceway at the back of it. “like i’m in a david lynch movie” buddy said. it cost us 250 to rent out. at 10 bucks a head, we made out with 50 dollars. yup. in a community of poetry like denver, and on top of that a community in which all of us are known pretty well, and a community all of us hold dear, we only had a 30 person audience. and in regards to a showing from the poetry community, maybe ten of that audience were of that. i love denver and i don’t slight anyone anything, i know i dropped the ball on my own word of mouth, and the show was only cemented down a week or so ago, but it’s still a little disappointing to leave one of one’s favorite places with feeling like you were never even there.

we stayed outside of denver in aurora. dan and i went downtown to go to the bank and scope for shoes and dan delaney joined up with us. he’s a cool kid, good people. we joined us back at the hotel when we all went to chipotle. he also opened for us, along with ken arkind. dan did a piece about a deaf girl that serves him coffee and ken did a piece about los angeles, a personafied love poem to that city. i love ken. that’s a beautiful man. he’s going through some stuff right now.
it’ll be alright though ken. remember and always do: you are loved.

it was good to see him as it always is. also good to see katie, matty z., jenn rinaldi, mr. delaney, brendan from youth speaks and the other youth speaks kids. this kid brendan gave me a copy of his book, i first met him when i toured through denver two years ago with sarah.he’s a precious and sometime awkward kid with poetry in his eyes and a strong voice that knows how to write. good to see him.
also, there was a girl oceana there, who i had met a few years ago at green acre Baha’i school out in maine, after the black men’s gathering. turns out she moved to denver from salt lake city a month ago and somehow met dan, he told her about the show and she came out. small world. after the show, dan and mikey went out to some tavern with the denver crew, but me and the other two went back to retire. i talked to sarah and went to sleep where i dreamed about playing ping pong at the black men’s gathering, joking around and playing ping pong with a basketball.

i was also shown that in the passenger side sunvisor, trapped inside the vanity mirror’s clasped flap, are several bunny grahams, crammed in there by buddy, waiting for an unsuspecting derrick brown to open and be filled with bunniness. just now, driving down I-25 south, baz turned to buddy and said: “did you shave this morning? cuz you have a cut or something right there?” motioning to buddy’s cheek. buddy lifted his head to check it out in the vanity mirror and was filled with bunniness.

we have the new radiohead playing and the desert outside of us. the mountains small and the clouds large flat and smiling larger. there are pancakes out there to be eaten.