How are your classes? said Alex. Fine, said Blurtso, except for my poetry class. Poetry? said Alex. Yes, said Blurtso, “Poems and Anti-Poems in Post-Structuralist America”— I’m afraid it’s nothing like what I’ve been writing for Lizzy. Let’s hear one, said Alex. O.k., said Blurtso, today’s assignment is, “Moon over Moab” by D.E.B. a.k.a. Prometheus Jones, but I'm afraid it’s very long. That’s o.k, said Alex.

                             “Moon over Moab”

                                         or

                   “Ain’t no Raspberries in da Sand”

    If we go south we shall suffer.

    But we shall cook and be consoled.

    Yeah. And be cleansed.

    And the people said unto him: Yeah.

    And he said unto the people: I am.

    And the people said unto him: Hey.

    And he did sally forth unto the desert

    for such a time as the Park Service permitted.

    And the frog-sizzling experience was. And it did transpire.

    And though he went through the valley of goblins he

    did not fear, because his mind was altered.

    And the people said unto him: Woah.

    And he leapt into the air of the sizzling experience

    and he cried dry tears and shrieked many languages.

    And the ranger said unto him: get some shorts on.

    But he did survive. And he saw the moon through

    the haze of the heat leaving the surface of the sand

    and he did feel the chilling loss of sun.

    And the people said unto him: Okay.

    And he said unto the people: Tequila?

    And the people said unto him: Hey.

    And he went forth from the arch into the cool night.

    And he did march many leagues and many fathoms.

    And he saw and experienced. And the moon painted

    a new world for his mind to alter.

    And he shrieked his many languages, and

    the lizard belched, and the raven woke.

    And he held a rattlesnake to his nose to

    let the moon paint its eyes.

    And the people said to the snake: Bite him.

    But it did not. And he was better for that.

    And the sizzling experience continued until

    the people got bored and departed.

    And in their cloud of dust he did curse them.

    And he did wail and gnash his teeth.

    And they did not hear nor did they turn.

    So in that silence that remained

    he ate quail and washed his pan.

    And he did stand and hop on one leg

    and spin and spin until he fell

    in a thud of confusion.

    And the sun refused to talk and the ravens

    came to see what he was.

    And he said unto them: Are you holy?

    And They flew far from him to the top of the sky.

    And he was alone in his sizzling experience.

    But he cared not, for his mind altered.

    And he fell into a dream for many days and nights.

    He dreamt of thunder and floods,

    of torrential rivers and drowned birds.

    He dreamt of myriad naked sisters dancing

    in circles around him and over him

    drowning him in pearls and flesh.

    He dreamt of constructions and tools,

    of nails and boards and callused hands,

    of stones to carve and the ropes to move them,

    and he did build a somnambulous temple to the

    snake that did not bite.

    He dreamt of many things until he woke with a thrist.

    And he said unto the shrubs: Waaater!

    And water was released with much noise
    and many languages sallied forth.

    And the rocks did not react.

    And the air did not react.

    And the heat did not move.

    And he said unto the space: "   "

    And the space replied in harmonious perfection: "   "

    And he did hear it and was a platonic ideal for a moment.

    Then the sky did close, and the sun did slip beneath the earth
    and the ravens hid and his experience was at an end.

    And the people did not say to him a thing,

    and he did slowly turn, and walked away.

Wow, said Alex, where is Moab? I don’t know, said Blurtso. Maybe we should go, said Alex. To Moab? said Blurtso. Sure, said Alex, what are you doing for spring break?