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MIKE BOYLE
Cars and Heroin Mike Hoke came to pick me up in Harrisburg and we drove up 81 which turns into I-78 had our guitars and some other stuff in the back and then the thing died 20 or so miles into Jersey engine locked up this keeps happening to me 6 years earlier the fuel pump in my Mustang went out on a stretch of road outside Long Branch going uphill with no place to pull off I got out to push the thing it was around 95 out my girl, Wendy was fretting and a car came up behind guy leaned out the window yelled get in I'll push so he pushed us bumper to bumper and we got over the hill glided into some apartment complex and I started knocking on doors some kind older couple took us in and gave us iced tea called a local garage and it worked out but we never made it to NYC that time stayed in Asbury Park for a few nights drinking and I went skinny dipping in the motel pool late early saying come on in Wendy! LOUD DRUNK she didn't but somehow kindness happens when you need it then last year another girl another car her's died on the way to Ocean City MD another kind old couple more tea and phone calls that car blew a timing belt and had to be towed we took the train back to Harrisburg that night after waiting for it in a black bar I was on heroin and we got into an argument later she stomped off and we continued the argument for a few years I think then Mike sd how Linda sd he should remember to put oil in the thing but he forgot it was winter and I was wearing deck shoes state cop came by called it in towtruck came and we gave the car to the towtruck guy for a ride into Easton Mike sd fuck it it only cost $400 now it ain't worth shit nope the driver and I sd took the bus from Easton to NYC got a cab down to Houston where Mike and Linda lived then before they lived in the flea-bag hotels they lived in later as soon as we got in the door Mike broke out the works and the dope Linda had and shot some I thought you sd you quit I sd and he laughed I knew you wouldn't come up to play if you really knew he sd want some? sure I sd the next day we took his strat to pawn and bought a bunch of dope and David the guy with the connection sd be carefull with this stuff it's strong I put a bag into my works and shot half waited and everything went almost black grey, really knew shot the rest in the sink -------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike's Shadow A few months later I was in the Hotel River View aka the Jane West close to the Hudson you could rent a room there for an hour or the night or by the week cheap was up for the weekend to work on a project with Mike playing with this model that had a few songs and thought she was a singer she had the look and could hit all the notes but I didn't really care it was just fun for me to be playing with my old friend again she had rented out one of the most expensive rehersal rooms in manhattan and we had worked out the songs all afternoon had enlisted our old pal David to play drums Mike played bass and I aka Tony my old street name played guitar Mike was pretty strung out by then had quit his job with we deliver actually had robbed them of a few pounds of weed and some mushrooms relived them he sd laughing there was always a bit of a barbarian in him that's what I liked he was as desperate as me after rehersal I figured we'd go down to his place on houston but he sd nah, c'mon and took me to where he and Linda were living now Linda was back to dancing in the strip clubs around times sq and the business he thought he was starting with the weed he stole never happened I got a room down the hall but spent the night in their room Mike told me that he dug Nick Cave I had turned him onto Nick a few months earlier told me how he used to put on Your Funeral My Trial and do a shot when Nick sang that line I am a crooked man and I've walked a crooked mile looked at me like that's you man but it really wasn't anymore and he didn't have a stereo anymore so we played songs all night in his hotel room the next day he told me I was nodding out during the songs and I sd sorry he sd that's OK I just waited till you woke up and continued playing you didn't know did you? no I sd --------------------------------------------------------------- Trine Mike Linda and I had already spent the early evening in tomkins sq park drinking smoking getting to know the people we were becoming but mostly goofing around running to the deli for 6-packs every hour or so as the cops walked by and the in-crowd walked by and the bums scouted out the places thay would be spending the night we weren't too concerned about what was going on in the hip clubs within walking distance and all the boho folks wearing black or dressing like madonna no then later night east river park on a park bench the projects on ave d licking our backs licking history off our backs wind whispering something and watching the planes take off from the 23rd st seaport Mike Boyle was a singer / songwriter / guitarist in New Left, a seminal, progressive punk band in the 80's. As part of the indie, DIY rock scene, they released 2 singles on their own label and recived significant college radio airplay across the USA. These poems are from a collection called Downtown Stories available free at Broomsnack Chaps. |
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© 2003 Underground Voices |
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