QA

Q. You've worked 11 out of the last 12 days, eleven hours a piece. How's that feel?

A. Like someone pulling all of America out of my nose.

Q. And what's the most amazing thing about that.

A. That I wasn't even pulling the longest hours. Brettney worked all 12 and about as many each one. Jesus, she lived and breathed the place.

Q. What does Brettney look like?

A. Like a mom.

Q. What does she drink after work?

A. Old wine.

Q. What's her laugh sound like?

A. Like Christ, if he ever actually had a job.

Q. Wasn't he a carpenter, though?

A. Nope, just a carpenter's son.

Q. And Brettney?

A. She was no mother's son. She was what rich people call a Working Woman.

Q. Do you feel very Springsteen right now?

A. I do.

Q. Does Bruce help get you through?

A. I know he's just the sound of this thing, but yeah, he do.

Q. What're you going to do tonight now that you're off work?

A. I plan to live poems.

Q. You're about the age where people call you Full Grown, a Man, even.

A. I am.

Q. So what's with the poems?

A. Because a Man's just where I end. Not even the beginning, the short straw of where I'm getting.

Q. And where's that.

A. Heaven beyond bourbon on earth.

Q. And what do you think of those other tenured types, or at least most of them?

A. They don't smoke like life. There's not much Brettany in their poems.

Q. And in yours?

A. I hope so.

Q. And why's that?

A. Because she's stronger than a ghost.

Q. How so?

A. She's never heard of France or Freud but has the strongest faith in football, and once, drunk, she ran her car right up on her baby-daddy's porch.

Q. And what did the boss say when she announced that, loud and proud, before everyone?

A. "Stay classy."

Q. And did he say that out of love?

A. Of course not.

Q. And will you say it, out of love?

A. All the way to the parking lot.

Q. And is the spirit that flows through you the greatest ocean on earth?

A. Neither Atlantic or Pacific, but five foot one, shy, with leg braces, yes, I know.

Q. Is it sweet to be of that spirit?

A. Always. Out of its mouth I'm each and every day full grown.

Q. And do you have any regrets?

A. As long as I am kept a kind secret in the good bosom food of the spirit, no.

Q. How many billion people do you think are in it?

A. As many as there are cells in the moment.

Q. Every one coming and going in you?

A. Yup, in and out of me. Great Spirit comes and goes.

Q. I always pegged you for a dark tint, but now you're mind's all open. What's that about?

A. Oh, that heavy stuff is just counterweight to keep pushing up the good stuff.

Q. Which is?

A. Oh, man, if you're here asking, you know.