The Four Trumps of the Dakotas(The Glorious Edge of Nowhere)

In which we again change narrators
becoming the pure consciousness
of Ray Lahoon: the diamond in the skull,
and discover the long stretch of highway
that is I-94

Part the First

Minnesota
Never was
And there was never
Anything
Before
But trees
And dead
Chattering smiles

Some dream
A comic book
History
Before this here
Highway

Here Lahoon
Is nothing
But a diamond
In the skull
Somewhere
They would call it
Consciousness
And sell it to you
In a Hare Hare
pamphlet
Here we just call it
The road

Here now!
I am a basketcase
Kid
Delivering
Papers
Pumping gas
In Fargo
Chasing
Races
I blink and

I am a basketball
Girl
Chucking balls
At nothing
And wondering
How the hell
To get out
Of this town

Down the road
down

I am Bismarck
And I am Mandan
And I am
Everything
In between

Missouri
Becomes Mississippi
And both consist
Of
I’s
And I am’s

I am and
I hear the choking
Escape
Of bloodclogged
Drains
And shotgun
Weddings
With bullets
Not bells
And bridestains
Not brides

Eternal
Recurring

Like has been said

I am the First
Of Four
Trumps
immutable

I am pinochle
Second dates
And Indian
Summers

I am the heart
On the sleeve
And the card
Up the same

I am all of it
And more again

I am the axe
In your back
And all
the Indian
Givers
On trial
As their victims

Swing in the summer wind

I am the beast
On the ground
The grain
Milled up
And spit out
To drink you
Beerdrunk

On the prairie
A beer Mass
Last supper
Summer wind

I am German
And Ukrainian
And Irish
Diaspora
And the language death
the culture
death

maggot culture
reborn from the carcass
of eastern European
western European

pain and fear

the maggot smiling
in the summer heat
the wind blows and

This America
Devours
Itself

And giant waffle
Breakfasts

2 for 1

On the side of the highway
Between Fargo
And Jamestown

Here
I am still dying
Forever
At war
With the east
At war
With the west

And the north and south
To come

Four kings
Four trumps

And at the center

Two princes
Made of one
Blood

Now summed

What a card

Read the Lyric from the Beginning