52 notes on the pacific northwest

1. The bear took the olive oil

2. it smashed the bottle to pieces

3. we don’t know for sure if it drank the olive oil

but it smashed the bottle to pieces

4. it took a big gulp of olive oil and then went

hollering down the canyon

5. the trees there were magnificent and 

6. when i woke up in the middle of the night to pee

i was the happiest boy in the forest

7. people had names like birch and lanyard and 

space ghost

8. there was a barricade

9. there were many barricades and many ways through

10. there was a string tied from the earth to the sky and if 

you pulled on it one might fall down

11. if they falled down it would be the end of everything

12. we were having too much fun singing “Madonna” songs

to let everything die

13. i was the highest one of all even though i never took drugs

14. i peed wherever i want

15. we had a peeing contest

16. we were all naked and showing off our bodies to each other 

and the trees and hollering and jumping around

17. it was awfully serious

18. the captain’s name was

19. jk no captain

20. there were people who spoke loudly and 

21. animals who spoke

22. and trees who thundered and grumbled and

told us what to do

23. our mossy hearts could take it

24. there was talk of a cougar

25. i was scared, i’d never met a cougar

26. the cougar’s name was 

27. jk didn’t have a name

28. i mean the cougar might’ve had a name

i just didn’t know it yet

29. i was wild and hairy and terrific

30. we had a lot in common

31. i stayed all night in a bath with two people who 

got married

32. it was too cold to get out

33. we got cosmic brownies and hitchhiked home

34. there was a reason for all this

35. the reason was so nobody would tug on the string

that ties earth to the sky, so it won’t all collapse

36. the reason was the little creatures who live there and how 

we’re all made of the same dust and whatever

37. the reason was that oily bear and his yearning for food

38. once there was a ruckus

39. twice there was a ruckus

40. there were times that were called “this is it”

41. there were times that were called “see ya later”

42. i tried to ride a train away but it didn’t go

43. a guy told me to stop asking so many fucking questions and then

i didn’t talk to him anymore

44. the boxcar asked me how the trees were doing i said about the same, 

they’re lonely but they won’t retire, too much yawning to do

45. i saw my way through the blizzard into the dry spell and all the

funny weathers to come

46. it was a lot, to be a funny creature of this earth

47. it was a lot, how the sky didn’t say much unless you just listened

48. if you weren’t always fleeing on foot or by car, spinning around

49. and drawing elaborate phoenixes on the bodies of new friends 

just before you leave each other

50. if you weren’t falling asleep to the yowls of wild things

51. some of which bite you

52. some of which are just happy to be here