Robert Nazarene

Blue Canoe/The Seven Stations of the Crossed

I. This is the Way We Start Our Day

Groggy,

from the overserving of sleeping pills (The Royal) we

permitted ourselves last night. It will take 4 cups of coffee

to regain the strength required to begin another day

of whining, complaining & gnawing at our legbone

to set us free from the trappings of our (yet-to-be-proclaimed)
spiritual journey.

II. Freshly Awakened, It is Time for Our Daily Meditation

I want. I want. I want.

I want. I want. I won’t

amount to any more

than a third-string poet…

like you.

III. Noon. And I’m Barely Feeling Hungry

Save for our midday helping of spacefood:

2 Clonazepam tablets, 1 Lamictal (100 mg),

4 Gabitril pellets, 2 Vicodin—and we’re off!

And yet:

it still tastes like chicken to me.

IV. Daily Mantra

From the annals of The History Channel:

rubber-legged & feeling a little woozy himself—

our bespectacled leader in his timber-rich voice quoth, thusishly:

We have nothing to fear

—but fear itself.

(Cut…to the Misses,

doing her crowd-winning “Francis the Mule”

impression…)

I take that back.

V. Daily Devotional

Dear God—I thank you for all the fear in my life—

without which—I would have nothing

to be afraid of.

(Not to mention: no lunch.)

VI. Evening Vesper

BARGAIN BOX CLASSIFIEDS

Browing BPS 20 ga., new, (still

in box), Baikal 28 ga. & Reming-

ton 710 30/06, Ted Williams

30/06, 2 Remington 12 ga.

Wingmasters (all new & still in

box). 185 Lamictal tablets, 180

Vicodins (100 mg), 160 Gabi-

trils, 160 Clonazepams (all new

& still in box), 1 case Wild Turkey,

prime Aged Bourbon Whiskey &

Yours Truly (still…

in box).

VII., 7, Seven (Holy of Holies)

Eli, Eli, lama

Sabacthani? (Enter, Stage Right:) a Blue Canoe