A Dog You Don't Want to Catch

I got off the bus

And it was--

It was like the dream

The dream

Where I got off the bus

And the heat hit me

And I thought--

Fuck

Fuck, this is real now

A dream’s like a dog

You don’t want to catch

You find it

And it snap snap snaps

Its teeth at you

Off the bus

And I’m already sweating

That’s when I started working

At the diner

He comes in

Orders two eggs

My first day

Two eggs

What the fuck, right?

Did I tell you

Why I left the city?

I left because--

Jesus, I had the dream

I had the dream

And I got on the bus

And there I am

Serving this fucker

Two eggs

Like, shit

People will do the craziest shit

When they’re lonely

In the summer

Make all kinds

Of bad moves

I go to work

At this hot sweaty diner

Stained apron--

No, no, no

That’s a costume

That’s what you hear about

I kept my apron clean

I didn’t play the part

I wasn’t about that

If I was going to do it

I was going to do it clean

Nice and clean

He showed up

And started asking me

About myself

After I got him

His two eggs

Now I had never

Met a man like that

I had met some monsters

I had known some

Oh yes

City’s full of them

They’re everywhere in the city

But the ones--

The country ones

They’ve got something special

About them

When they choke you

They look you

In the eyes

The whole time

He never choked me

But I asked him to

A couple of times

Leave it to me

To take the strangle

Out of the strangler

Said I made him

A better person

What the fuck is that?

I wasn’t looking

For a better person

I didn’t get on a bus

To find a better person

Just a sweaty diner

To serve eggs at

What I got

Was some puppy dog

Who wanted to leave bodies

In ditches

Following me around

With all the spark out of him

So I got back on the bus

Still had my apron on

When I did it too

Wanted something to remember

My lonely summer by

Something I could put on

The next time I wanted

To go for a ride