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17 ryan William Michael Ryan Doxology "poor forked branch of applewood, you will feel all your bones break over the holy water you wiU never drink." — Galway Kinnell Dowsing rods cross over the last blue note a millenium below 10,000 strata metamorphic rock skeletal angle iron substruction alkaline power cells trying to spark between hemispheres, a light of heavenly blues song, in the tradition of Mississippi mud high tension bass line wired underground to fossils of bottleneck guitar notes an agatized upright piano in a basement barrelhouse chording deep in the mud and it is so beautiful dowsing rods can't contain it dip into where the river slides up the neck, the open tuning of corpus callosum welled in crude oil and it is so beautiful the spinal shaft can't contain it the Mississippi and Missouri merge in the streets, girls with sharks wade from the steps of church place fossils of sharks' teeth on the tongues of sharks and it is so beautiful the chorus can't contain it blues and gospel merge in the streets, song abandons their mouths 18 the minnesota review like bees and priests cowl their eyes it is so beautiful the river can't contain it and dives under the mud and under the mud dive the sharks and roses delicately dissect clams The last blue note rises in a flourish of amniotic fluid and spills in the streets in the scarlet shrapnel of sunset and it is so beautiful chained dogs can't be contained claw up out of the mud singing and moaning Negro families on porches sweeping downriver make the sign of the cross with calipers and the chain of children climbing out of the mud with a slew of roses strung through the gills is so beautiful the church bells can't contain it and knell and fall and rocker arms open valves internal jubilation against welded seams of the cranium bruises the whites of the eyes with fire and it is so beautiful the sky can't contain it and rain drops fall, melted together by their open mouths and smell the way rain smells to a child who has lost his way under a willow on a pond a dragonfly pirouettes on a circle and it is so beautiful the circle can't contain it and 10,000 circles light out 19 ryan William Michael Ryan The Cut I had a black knife in my black pants black shirt and boots But my hands had their own ideas they wore nothing but black Sullivan threw me outta Social Studies for laughing at his ears I was in the hall pulling on my black belted trench coat He comes out and goes, "Rhine" (the dumb shit usta call me Rhine) "Rhine," he goes, with his neck lizard red "I've had all I can take from you" My eyes turned black in his eyes and I gave him a little more I flagged down the "Jumpin' Jack" got Pony Jenkins to buy me a pint of Twister, peppermint wine, drank it and threw some punk in the river off the railroad bridge When he came back with his friends Jimmy Welch got cut, about 3 inches worth deep, and stuffed a guinea T under his leather 20 the minnesota review We copped some blues at the docks carried them to the orchard in the fog roasted them on a stick with apples and smoked Parliments we lifted from Grand Union We opened the wound to wash it a neat gash of slick tissue oozing blood and lymph parting the black hair on his thigh deeper than it was wide We couldn't see the end of it 6 of us staring into the hole like it was an animal out of which something would emerge a passage through which something had entered A cop car cruised the highway we backed into a ditch a D-9 Caterpillar had cut through the orchard holding Jimmy like he was a child It was after midnight when I got home from the pool hall; expecting to catch hell I saw the undertaker stoop through the door in striped pants...

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