Andre F. Peltier

Like an angel,

out of this filthy mess,

she is alone.

You don’t want to get mixed up

with a guy like me;

I’m a loner, a rebel.

I got some bad ideas in my head.

You're in a hell,

I know you are,

and you're gonna die in a hell,

just like the rest of 'em!

From now on, I will be

total organization.

But what am I?

Loneliness has followed me

my whole life.

Too much sitting has

ruined my life.

Don’t wear it out.

My whole life is pointed

in one direction.

There never has been a choice for me.

I get headaches, it's so bad, you know.

Nobody hipped me to that.

It's like - they just never go away.

Why don’t you take a picture?

It will last longer.

This city here is like an open sewer,

you know, it's full of filth and scum.

I remember, filth and scum;

I remember The Alamo.

I have to clean the cum off the back seat.

Some nights, I clean off the blood.

Go ahead and scream your head off!

We're miles from where anyone

can hear you!

I realize now how much she's

just like the others,

cold and distant,

and many people are like that,

women for sure, they're like a union.

I know you are, but what am I?

Don’t try it, you fuck!

I wouldn’t sell my bike for

all the money in the world.

Days go on and on...

they don't end.

All my life needed was a sense

of someplace to go.

Life can be so unfair.

I don't believe that one should

devote his life to morbid self-attention,

I believe that one should

become a person

like other people.

I'm all alone.

I'm rolling a big doughnut

and this snake wearing a vest.

Thank God for the rain,

which has helped wash away

the garbage and trash off the sidewalks.

I don’t need the police,

I don’t need you,

I don’t need anybody!

All the animals come out at night:

whores, skunk pussies, buggers,

queens, fairies, dopers, junkies...

sick, venal.

Someday, a real rain will come

and wash all this scum off the streets.

There's a lotta things about me

you don't know anything about.

Things you wouldn't understand.

Things you couldn't understand.

Things you shouldn't understand.

I'm not square,

you're the one that's square.

That’s my name.

Don’t wear it out.

You're full of shit, man.

This city here is like

an open sewer.

The mind plays tricks on you.

You play tricks back,

Infinity!

This is the word of the Lord,

Amen

*This poem interpolates dialogue from the films Taxi Driver (Columbia Pictures, 1976) and Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (Warner Brothers, 1985).