Kerouac and Monroe on Kalaloch
1.
Long ago they found each other here.
She wanted to be like the wild stallion
she had seen in Nevada. He had lost his mind
in Massachusetts.
They sat all day on the long beach.
They drank beer propped against drowned trees.
Sometimes they spoke. Mostly
they stared at the sea. Low tide. High.
Their famous faces flared on the screen of the sky.
Their faces grew tired, turned red,
Their limbs dried. The sun fell. They became
driftwood. They were dying. She said
tell me of sex.
He recited Rilke's Ninth Elegy.
She heard only the line
and escapes
in ecstasy
beyond the violin.
Tell me, she cried, of when
you were a kid.
2.
She slid her hand down the haggard belly, held him.
He was warm. He stirred. He stayed small.
He slept. She watched twelve pelicans
row the horizon. She laid her head
on the blade of his shoulder.
She saw his face above the waves.
It was the saddest face she had ever seen.
She saw the face held knowledge
of her death. She saw the man
might be the man
who murders her.
They walked miles up the beach
looking for a bed.
He quoted poets who had slept there.
He said he knew the island was Tatoosh
from the poems. He said poets
find their lovers here. Later,
they found a road sign. It named the island
Destruction.
In a tavern on the highway an Indian was saying
Hunting elk is a disease. I seen
an elk hunter pump seven bullets
into an elk that wasn't there.
And he didn't even have
his gun.
Tell me about sex, she said
as they drank. Tell me
who you are. He said, I've been
ruthless.
The bartender asked, Where you two from?
You look familiar, like a couple I know
in Wyoming. The Indian went on
You can take any road out of here,
sleep over night, hear them
the mating calls, cougar, lynx, black bear
this time of year.
They walked back through slashpiles.
It was dark. He said
I learned to be ruthless
from the Church. I took
a vow of poverty.
She searched the sky for the southern stars.
She saw how far she had come.
Shit. She said, I was born
in L.A.
4.
They made a bed beneath Cedar
on a bluff above the sea
She would have preferred on the beach,
He was afraid of rain.
She was glad to know
of something he felt.
They made a small fire.
They cooked soup in the can.
They covered themselves with a single blanket.
5.
When first they loved
when her body lifted off the needles
when her body rose and churned like the demonic waves
when her cries, lifted to the night,
screamed back at them like gulls
she knew why
no man
had ever stayed with her.
6.
When second they fucked, she sobbed,
She screamed. It was not
Pleasure. He folded his arms around her back,
Lifted her from the ground.
The water rolled from her face. He said
What is my name?
7.
When they loved again she remembered
This may be the man who kills me.
She felt his hands
Form the body she knew as a girl.
She saw the raccoons watching them.
In stars' light their needles glistened.
She thought
Cougar. Lynx. Black Bear
and such a light body he laid on her
So thin. His ribs. He was hard to find.
He fled more than she. Are you ever...
she searched Cedar for the word
Emotional. When he was through
he poured his dark face into her pale hair
She felt his body heave
in the attempt to cry.
8.
She watched the Virgin slip into the water.
She woke him. Tell me about
Ruthless.
He told her. She lay quiet. The man
could kill her. She watched
the Scales of Love go down.
She woke him. She whispered
don't be ruthless
with me. You can get
whatever you want
without being
Ruthless.
He promised. He slept. Of course, she said
to the Scorpion, I can take
it. He was awake. He said
I know you can.
9.
Once from the night she heard the Indian again.
Wednesday is hump night. That's halfway
over the hump. She saw the raccoons
getting ready. Cougar. Black Bear. She said
Ruthless means
a promise
is nothing.
He was awake. He said
I know. I thought of that.
10.
When again they loved, as the Hunter
drowned, as the night rolled over
the hump of the sun, he shook her shoulders
and cried, Do you even
know my name?
11.
In the silver light of morning, at the coldest hour
they loved again. The tide was high. Water
rushed the bluff. Cedar flared above them.
He buried his mouth
in the wild yellow grass
between her legs.
The seasons changed. It was summer
when they met. Now the trees flamed
and fell.
12.
He took his shirt from her.
He leaned over the bluff.
The sky and sea found his body
for her. Tell me, she said,
about sex.
He put on his black leather cap.
The saddest face she had ever seen
smiled. He said, My name is Jack.
Your name is Marilyn.
And that is why we sojourn here
Alone on Kalaloch.
13.
They are so far from home.
She says his name. He touches her lips.
She will escape into ecstasy beyond the violin.
When he can't cry, he will see his own face
above the waves, he will shoot
fictitious elk, he will be without his
gun. He will be ruthless.
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