This one's for that "sweet face ... angel eyes ... could be ...
who knows? ... for sure."

5:05

Downtown bound, grab for the dollar,

Get out of my way, 5 o'clock rush!

Hey! Up yours, buddy!

Learn how to drive that junk heap.

Man, I gotta get this package

Up to Mr. Never-seen-a-bad-day-dirty room

Snot-crack-ceiling-in-his-life.

Move it!

You are an obstacle I will not wait for.

Home to the broad lawns with you.

Home to the taxes. Home

To the TV-makes-your-life-go-bye-bye

Lickity-split zip bam boom

Varoom into tomorrow.

Move it!

I'm that nobody nobody knows

Who could make a difference

In your status quo.

Hey Mope!

Get outta the way!

5:12

I get on the elevator, see, and nobody's talkin'. The

doors slide shut together. The bells ding. The buttons flash.

Nobody's talkin'.

I turn to Mrs./ Ms. Maybe-Lady-beige-coat-business-suit

... heavy on the make-up ... haulin' a briefcase ... headin'

out of her forty-story tombstone -- sure that she's fixed on

some sorrowful sight of herself squeezin' her sore feet on a

footstool, closing the curtains on a skyline I'd kill to see

the stars from.

Or maybe she's starting into her kitchen of independence

composing a meal she'll masticate alone.

Or maybe her bucks'll buy her sushi at one of Friday

night's best.

Or maybe it's the CSO tonight third row.

Or...or...or...or ...

I can't stand it no more! This conjecture. I perch my

toes on the canyon gap etiquette of office world sociability

and leap -- BONSAI! -- into the yaaawwwn between us.

"Hello. Whatta ya say? Bon jour.

Greetings. One grape to another ...

How's it hanging on the vine?

"Nice day, ain't it gonna be

When we get free of this rat race mouse wheel?

"I'm Marc Mac Joe Jim ...

Call me what you want!

"The city when it empties out and lights go on

Seems like a fairyland to me, Lady ... sparkling!

"And when the wind blows west off the big water,

The waves crash like madcap dancers, spring-coil sprung

... loose in my mind ... over the piers!

"Have you seen that, Lady? Have you seen

the cossack leap of white cap waves?

"Have you, Lady? Have you?"

5:47

Back on the street. Third gear.

Shifting across the river.

Skyline white Wrigley wind

Whippin' me smack! in the face.

And I think, "Man!"

I gotta be crazy!

Pissin' out my time like this

Hustlin' packages across the city

For a next to nothin' piece a paper paycheck!

By the hour, on the hour,

Deadline gotta get there

Full speed down the alley.

Turn left! Turn right!

Man!

I'm sayin', "No more!" Pack it in.

T G I F forever. Break the arms off.

Blow the whistle. Pull the plug.

"MISTER CHESTNUT EAST 11th STREET,

YOUR PACKAGE IS GONNA BE LOST!"

... until Monday.

6:23

I slip in through the back door of the Dearborn Diamond

Health Club Sauna; a fictitious delivery under my arm. It's

a high-roller, pinky ring, Republican type of place.

No women allowed.

What woman would wanna be there?

Cuban cigars. Cedar panels brown bone dry. Drippy

moustaches. Flesh flab floppin' out. Gray temples bleedin'

white rain.

Sections of the Wall Street Journal

Under cellulose butts.

I'm there to do the sauna thing and come out clean as

a king ... but none of 'em are talkin'.

Mr. Spencer-Tracy-Redface-Frown (could be a judge) ...

farts. Nobody says nothin'.

He's knocking out a deal in his brain, counting up all

the favors he's owed from his last shifty transaction ...

or maybe, he's thinking about what he'll buy the old lady

to keep her trap shut about all his late night escapades

... or maybe his mind is on the son he gave too much or too

little to, spread dead like a highway dog ... motorcycle ...

... rain ... drunk

... or ... or ... or ....

There I go again! Inventing their lives.

The hell with that! I'm jumpin' in:

"Good day!

It may not be good to you, sir, but ....

"Yeah, I called you sir. Why not?

You're older than me.

"You may not deserve it,

But sir I give to you.

"The death of morning glories

And sweet pea flower on a chain link fence

is beautiful. They hold their color in the early snow.

"And damn, sir,

We've all done great wrongs

To the ones we love.

"Grab hold of some ash.

Smear it on your face.

"Get ready for spring!

The sweet pea morning glories

will bloom again!"

7:34

Back on the street for the last time.

And it's clear of the rush.

Everybody's done their downtown

Friday night prime the pump thing.

Shot their two-buck blue-flame shooters

Into their meat heads

And got gone

Over the pavement

Into the sun ball--

Popside radio singing white line hug.

And now?

Now, they're zoning out in front of the TV

Mumblin' that they'd like to go someplace.

They'd like to do something,

But they can't find the energy.

Well, that's them, not me.

I'm preparin' to party

At the invite of an old of an old H.S. buddy

Who made it BIG in the art world

Sculptin' together scrap iron

To form junk penises.

I think,

I can be as crude as that.

8:12

I step in through the double oak doors, (ooooweeee!)

hand my handlebars to the butler, groom myself in the

mirror, and check it out.

Plush!

Gigantic teardrop chandelier!

Punch bowl big as a truck tire!

Silver buckets of chocolate

For dipping the fingerlings in.

Chic dangling earring women.

Tuxedo men.

I'm a little out of pace, but thank god they're talkin'.

The room's abuzzin' with chatter.

"Hello! ... Whadda ya say? ... Bonjour.

One grape to another how's it ....

I'm Marc ... Mac ...

Joe ... Jim ....

Call ... me ...

what ... you ...

want.

Nice day ain't it gonna ... hey?

Hey?

HEY! WHAT IS THIS?

A MY SHIT DON'T STINK CONVENTION!"

9:02

I scan the room, and they're talkin' alright -- but

nobody's sayin' nothin'.

I start to make a beeline for the butler to reclaim

my handlebars and kick the dust off my boots on this place,

when I spy a sweet face across the room laughin' ... angel

eyes ... could be ... who knows? ... for sure!

I jump over my aversions to what's going on around me

And dash into her face:

"Ah ...

I know you.

"I mean, I don't know you ...

But I know you.

"Have you ever seen a field afire with fireflies

... sparks rising out of the red coals?

Or the low storm of sand over beach?

Or old folks holding hands refusing to die?

"Have you seen that?

... have you?

"YOU HAVE !

Well then, come on with me!

Let's ditch this party!

Pretentious art fucks (oh excuse me)

... sophisticated bores.

Let me show you the city as I see it

When I'm packin' the packages

from place to place.

And do you see that there?

And there!

And over there!

You do?

You really do."