THE ROSE

Years later (1977), in the driveway of a Brentwood ranch-house, weakened by Zen meditation and a faultless woman, he allows The Rose to manifest. The Rose tries to interfere with him. He protects his haunches by leaning against the fender of an antique Mercedes, and to gather his resistances, he improvises a song:

It’s been hard since I left The Garden

I don’t feel so good in my clothes

But I’m not shaking hands with The Warden

And I’m not going back to The Rose

I miss the vice of a man like Christ

And there’s too many Arthur Rimbauds

But I’m not going back to Paradise

And I’m not going back to The Rose

The Rose begins to discorporate. He rushes toward it. The delivery man from the Health Food Dairy finds him standing beside the bougainvillea, his eyes closed, kissing the air.