Free Entry 2, Week 6

II. Richard

Charlie, his dog, ran away one day
But reappeared after Richard falls,
On knees praying to God, Charlie
Bounds back in a halo of light.
He does not know what to think

Of that. That. As if the slight moment
Of religion acts as nothing but a pronoun.
Jerusalem’s famous little green man,
Might be out there, might not. There.
There‘s, there again, like That

Springing up when people do not
Want to name what they believe.
What. On a mountain in Santa Cruz
A witch takes Richard to the top,
Later his wife will leave him for
Her lesbian lover. The wives visit

Him from California. He’s thinking
Of going back to practice psychiatry.
He’s 63. Richard calls on me,
We talk. About novels, medicine,
Walking. Somehow I bring up
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,

He tells me that at one time he
Went to the same psychiatrist
As Ken Kesey. I wonder if they ever
Passed each other in the hallway.