Every cloud has a silver lining.
You have to squint, sometimes,
to see it.
It’s harder to make a fire
without a match
but it can be done.
I know a guy,
for instance,
who knows a guy
who knew Charles Manson.
Funny kind of guy.
Not my friend;
the guy who knew Manson.
Offbeat.
Eccentric, you might say,
but he had a day job.
Security guard,
he wore a uniform,
carried a gun when he was at work.
So he started writing to Manson.
I don’t know why
but he did
and Manson wrote back
and I’m pretty sure I know
why Manson wrote back.
When you write to a guy like Manson,
and you write him again,
and again,
and again,
that tells him more
than anything you said in your letters.
So Manson writes back
and he says, you seem like a tuned-in guy.
He wants something;
who knows what,
but you know there’s something he wants.
The security guard, the offbeat guy,
there’s something he wants, too.
It’s like a game.
Problem is,
Manson’s been playing it longer.
Well a little time passes,
more letters
more letters
back and forth
back and forth
and finally Manson says, hey.
You seem like a righteous dude,
you busy this weekend?
Now this is all
long,
long,
long
after mags like Rolling Stone
stopped hanging on Manson’s every word.
These are the later years.
This is the Manson Comeback Special.
Even so,
going to a maximum security prison
to see Charles Manson
is nothing like going downtown
to see your brother-in-law
in the drunk tank.
It’s Manson, fer cryin’ out loud.
Certain precautions have to be taken.
The rules strictly followed.
Something you would think
a guy who works security
would know.
Anyway, the big day comes
and the off-beat, security guard guy,
the one who carries a gun
as part of his job,
he goes to the prison
to see Manson.
He goes
in one of his guard uniform shirts,
I don’t know why
but he does.
And they search him.
And they find a bullet
he left in his shirt pocket.
Well obviously
he doesn’t see Manson,
and now the guards
have to deal with him;
the guards are pissed,
this means more paperwork for them
and Manson’s pissed,
this means he’s going to the hole.
But before they walk away,
when the guards are there
shaking their heads
and before
they walk him to the hole
and Charlie’s there
and Charlie’s shaking his head—
all of them, shaking their heads,
the man who said,
my thoughts set fire to your cities,
and the people who put out the flames—
these two factions
who have been at war so long,
for a moment they stand together
and in that moment
fire is made.
All because the guy
who knows a guy
who knows my friend
forgot to check his pockets.
You have to squint sometimes,
to see the silver lining;
even without a match
you can make a fire.