anatomy of the pit

1

The bodies in the pit spin
like stories in the imagination of an old man.

I don’t know how to describe the feeling
but I would never use the word lonely.

It can exist without any one person
but it stops existing without anyone.

I don’t know how to describe the motion
but I would never use the word dancing.

2

That first pit
I felt like I belonged.
Here were people, like me
who had been beaten
until beating didn’t hurt  anymore.

These bodies
carved on, drawn upon,
with heart shaped bruises
These bodies
treated as targets
and magnets of scorn

I was them
and they were me
and we were no longer
ourselves.

3

Hold my jacket
is just one way our people say
I love you.

We have five other words and phrases for love.
they are:
vinyl
guest list
all ages
play faster
and
this band sucks

4

Geodes can form
in any cavity that is buried.

Pits can form
in any show that is crowded.

The interior of most common geodes
contains quartz crystals.

The interior of most common pits
contains young angry people.

The size of the crystals, their form, and shade of color
make each geode unique.

The size of the people, their age, and shades of anger
make each pit unique.

Geode slices are sometimes dyed with artificial colors,
as are often the people who make up the pit.

5

New Year’s Eve, 1988
Bernard’s Pub:

It was snowing so hard
few showed up to the club.

Me and thirty skinheads.

I went there not to see the show
but to see Lisa Cyrus
the most beautiful girl in St. Louis
but she wasn’t there.

The skins formed a pit
but the band wouldn’t play fast enough,
tbey were a new wave disaster.

The skins didn’t care.
They swirled in galactic spiral arms,
a universe of Docs, white T shirts, and red braces.
I picked out one freshly shaven head
gleaming North Star bright
as wished on it
for Lisa to come.

About eleven, she showed up.

It had been several months.
I had moved to LA,
was back for Christmas.

Face to face with her
I forgot every word I planned out.

there was an awkward lull.
I blurted out,
this band sucks.

She pulled me
close to her
by the lapels of my leather
and kissed in the new year.

around us
the skins moshed to music
only they could hear.

outside
it continued to snow

it was a hell of a way
to start 1989.

6

While opening for 7 Seconds
with his band
Unified Field Theory,
Nikola Tesla formed the first pit
in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Albert Einstein denied its existence,
but Neils Bohr claimed to have predicted them.

7

It’s been a long time
since I’ve been in a pit.

my bruises disappeared
like forgotten stories.

Seems like the pits
are too easy to find now

it looks more like dancing now,
it seems a lot more lonely.

but maybe it’s just
this old man’s imagination.