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WA129 – Spokane

Spokane

Do not eat more than two fish a week from the river of murk. Bill, the Fauceteer, master of old plumbing parts crowns with copper pipe. Tormino’s Glass man makes seductive proposals while windows are measured. White’s Boots steel the boots toes. Miller’s is unsurpassed in hardware.
Someone here knows how to sing the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Our state is named for George Washington, President of the United States. I don’t know if his teeth were really made of wood. May Hutton was a suffragette. Mrs. Browne started theatre and all that shameful dancing. Louis and Clark came by. Thompson explored. Cowley started the first church. In 1893, there was a wheat panic. The Great Spokane fire burned the town. Mr. Duncan brought lilacs. In Manito Park there used to be a lion in a cage. At Drumheller Spring, Spokane Garry taught. There is a meteor hole filled with trash and a norovirus at the homeless shelter. A man digs up ant hills looking for gold. In Washington, the loss of grasping is worth more than in Oklahoma. $118,266. It says so on this chart. The French horn player says naked ladies are okay. Someone remembers what it means to be a tree. There are more than a few dogs named Jake. There is a place called Z Nation near here. The Monroe and Washington Street Bridges fell into the river. The Governor was mauled by a bear. There are soldiers buried west of town near a place for those who wander downhill. Water is held in the cleft of the rock. In the old days, things were thrown into the river to wash downstream – saw dust, garbage, chamber pots and offal. The Japanese Garden was built in 1961. Our children ride around town on metal goats and carousel horses going round. If you dig down, you might find the bones of salmon or Chinese in opium dens. If you turn carefully, you see the cursed ghost of Jimmy Marks or the naked ass of Willie Wiley. Drink in the meth and the bootlegged whiskey. No, not all Indians make totem poles. Heron stands still through it all. Amen.