seven dogs i drank nine beers in nine bars a tribute to nine women who wrecked me walking home i walked past the red house over yonder same one i’ve walked pass ninety-nine and one-half times before i stopped right there and thought, how drunk am i? so i did the math nine bars, nine beers, nine times nine is eighty-one in nineteen eighty-one i was nine years old and in the nineth hour of the nineth day of my nineth winter, i walked this very path with the same nine mailboxes on the sidewalk to the left and the same nine garden gnomes in the garden to the right ninety-nine and one-half newspapers piled up on the doorstep of the red house over yonder and that’s when i saw what i saw the thing that haunts me forever i saw seven dogs fighting in the alley for a leftover chicken bone seven brothers forgot their bond and surrendered to the hunger i saw their teeth grow long and their eyes grow sinister i saw mortal fear up close and personal and then i saw the blackest crow i ever saw swoop down and steal that chicken bone then perch high on a steeple, seven tail feathers pointed due east i saw seven dogs in disbelief seven dogs, one dead chicken and a tax collector in the blackest crow-feathered trench coat i ever saw nine creatures total
jalopy dreams 