"Cash" by Emily XYZ (with Myers Bartlett)

Emily XYZ and Myers Bartlett read Emily XYZ's two-voice poem "Slot Machine."

From The United States of Poetry episode "The Word."

Copyright Washington Square Arts, 1995.
Quarters

Gonna do the laundry
he says

he says
Gets on the highway
lighted like a landing strip
lighted like a landing strip
the slate of darkness scribbled on with a neon pen
somebody's cartoon car
flyin thru analog Ann Landers land
flyin thru infrastructure
flyin thru statistical abstracts of the
United States past encryption past the
bank machine past past lives into the
beating heart of the last days of the
twentieth century he comes to a
slot machine.
CASH
CASH
CASH CASH

Who knows where his heart is
His heart was ripped out and
buried in a mattress stuffed with cash
he guesses
he guesses/every couple of weeks he
takes the metal detector out to
the national park
hikes up to the big chasm that separates
us and them
which the founding mothers and fathers
did not envision
which nobody thought would happen
wonder how it happened
wonder how it happened

how'd the rich get that rich
how'd the poor get that poor
how did everybody get so murderous
how'd everybody get so ready to kill
over the stupidest s--t
he thinks it must come down to CASH

must be everything comes down to CASH

in this country anyway
in this country anyway
to avoid misery

Pulls into the parking lot
lots of money in his pocket
gets a drink
drinks it
drinks it
drinks it
and the quarters
go in
the slot
machine
and the quarters
gets a drink drinks it
drinks it
drinks it
and the quarters
go in
the slot
machine

CASH
cherry cherry blank
lemon orange lemon
orange orange lemon
lemon lemon orange
lemon orange lemon
lemon orange lemon
orange cherry lemon
orange orange lemon
lemon lemon orange
blank blank cherry
cherry cherry lemon
blank blank cherry
blank cherry lemon
cherry blank lemon
cherry blank lemon
cherry blank cherry
cherry blank blank
cherry lemon lemon
cherry lemon lemon
orange lemon lemon
lemon cherry orange
lemon cherry orange
lemon cherry orange
lemon cherry orange
lemon cherry orange
lemon cherry orange
cherry cherry cherry
CASH

he took the day off work
so he could be with his friends
Sammy and Davis
and ride around Telluride
and ride around Vegas
He says he wants to live
a life free of boredom
a life free of pain
says this the U.S.
and there's money everywhere

in the desert hills
in the darkest bar
in the deepest casket
in the poorest excuse
in the flat expression
in the fabrication
in the sliding land
in the Sands Hotel
I'm goin the store/
takin the car
ignoring the index of
economic indicators
and the statistics
that tell me I'm poor
I'm goin the store
I'm goin the store
I'm goin the store
Isn't that what money's for?

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