H e a r t S o n s & H e a r t D a u g h t e r s of A l l e n G i n s b e r g

N a p a l m H e a l t h S p a : R e p o r t 2 0 1 4 : A r c h i v e s E d i t i o n

JAMES RUGGIA

The Hard Way

Back then he lived a pet store turtle's life with its little rock

island, tap water sea and plastic palm. Always in the fort of his

big popularity, he'd shout your deepest secret to the gym class

gorilla boys watching Monday Night Football in a suburban bar.

They didn't like it and they punched him down to the bottom of a

circle and kicked him from all points on the compass. His

striding self confident smile gave way to the blinky demeanor of

a man riddled with shrapnel walking out of a burning town. An

alien intelligence struggling to communicate as fire storms eat

forests off his planet.

[Originally published in NHS 1998, http://www.poetspath.com/napalm/nhs98/ruggia.html.]