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Friday, November 30, 2007

EVEL, ARCH KNIEVEL-IST

a beer-kegger's b@ll@d

by Bill Costley

               “He taught by example.”
               --Kelly Knievel, Evel’s oldest son


Dubya ponders the death of 1
who mostly influenced him: Evel,
the Knievelest man in America,
a modern super-stunt legend:

“Dang , ah-cain’t ac-cept his Dayth,.”
maunders Dubya, “Ah-jus’ cain’t.”
Dubya clutches his heart in pain,
then his crotch, then his hard-ass

& falls to the floor, rolling across
to the TV, clicking the zapper
& Evel’s image appears on it,
in his prime, sitting on a H@rley.

“A magniflicent Man on his bahk!”
shouts Dubya from the cold floor,
“Whooda evur a-thot he’d dah? Ah
sawr him cheat Dayth many tahms.”

Dubya thinks of himself on his bike
on the dusty roads of TX, beer-can
in hand, a-laffin’ his hard-ass off,
a-burnin-up the Tayks-ass road.

“Ah shur hope ah kin go lahk he did,”
maunders Dubya, imagining Evel
jumping a ph-phalanx of beer-kegs,
landing on a hard-rock big as Hell.


Bill Costley serves on the Steering Committee of the San Francisco chapter of the National Writers Union.