123 lines
4.9 KiB
Plaintext
123 lines
4.9 KiB
Plaintext
I SURVIVED THE WORLD SERIES EARTHQUAKE OF '89
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Yeah yeah the earth moved for me too.
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Just another one of those things that God yes God
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Hath willed into motion to flip us right spang out.
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Not that that's the point.
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We talk about it.
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Closure?
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As if terror were a problem to be solved,
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As if an equation could describe a process,
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With a neon equals sign somewhere near the middle to grab
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Like the hanging bar on a bus
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To steady us against all this flux and hoo-hah? A safe idea?
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Fat chance.
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There was death but mostly it was televised,
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Not co-workers and best friends.
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It was only The Pretty Big One,
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Maybe we needed to be told.
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Like we didn't already know that the earth doesn't love us.
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We love it.
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Love it like some stupid junior-high-school-kid romance,
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Look back and cringe:
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After pining, whining, and subterfuge,
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The object of desire is in our bed and uh-oh, now what?
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Hand jobs and finger-fucking.
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And now maybe abuse it.
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That would be fun.
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When things get spooky, kids, you can always leave.
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You get older
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And you don't worry so much, believe me.
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You know how to make resolutions.
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You get so most of your wounds are paper cuts and stiff necks.
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Nothing a band-aid or a back rub won't cure.
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Or a really enormous amount of money.
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Then this.
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Something big unstoppable random.
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Positive self-image or no
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You are not a Problem-Solver on this level.
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But your choices are still endless.
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You can loot the ComputerLand
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Or you can patrol the street with a flashlight.
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You can love your life or take it.
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I learned to hug people harder.
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It isn't much, but it doesn't have to be.
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I couldn't explain that to my friends on the east coast
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Who called in a panic then carped, as in a single voice:
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Yeah, right, Go West Young Shit-For-Brains.
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Oh well.
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They have hurricanes.
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Slow fade and lapse back into band-aids and back rubs.
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No need to live out there forever.
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The Niners just won the Super Bowl and the damage is
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Oh yeah the Embarcadero Freeway is still closed
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Mostly an inconvenience.
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You take the long way 'round enough you forget there was a shortcut.
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And then
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A restaurant you always liked, in Chinatown, on Kearney
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Henry Chung's Hunan with the dancing chili peppers on the sign
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You won't believe the onion cakes!
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Closed? You gotta be kidding!--due to structural damage.
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A little magic-marker map in the window
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To Henry's bigger, colder place on Sansome
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Remember?
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With the tacky-chic neon wall installation that spells out:
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<20><><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD>No MSG<53><47><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD>
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I walk there with my sister
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And she's depressed.
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That little hole in the wall, she's eaten there
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Every time she's been to San Francisco.
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I want to immerse myself in Tsing Tao and onion cakes
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But she makes me tell the stories.
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How the light caught the windows as they fell
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From the Kaiser Building in Oakland.
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How in Hunter's Point--famous for crack and drive-by shootings
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(Yo Crips! Yo Bloods!)
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--I laughed
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When the windows rattled with the first aftershock.
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How the yuppies downtown walked around dazed,
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Many with drinks in their hands,
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And all the men, their ties at half-mast.
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Some of the stories aren't even mine
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But I tell them anyway
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She needs to know
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Needs to taste it
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And I need these scallions, this sesame batter,
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This perfect grease.
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David Fox
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X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X
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Another file downloaded from: The NIRVANAnet(tm) Seven
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& the Temple of the Screaming Electron Taipan Enigma 510/935-5845
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Burn This Flag Zardoz 408/363-9766
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realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510/527-1662
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Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 801/278-2699
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The New Dork Sublime Biffnix 415/864-DORK
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The Shrine Rif Raf 206/794-6674
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Planet Mirth Simon Jester 510/786-6560
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"Raw Data for Raw Nerves"
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X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X
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