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Johnny Holler and Sally Rue water the ascan full of coaldust, either way, hardly ht they can’t even look at each other, silver and gold as the moon and the sun, before the moon went black and the sun hite

And o down under the bar at the Gnaw Hollow Saloon when the Loan Officer co into toith contracts in his belt Everyone understands and consents to the action at hand, no arguments once the

outcome is clear, yes, yes? Speak up, too late to be shy, what are the agreed-upon weapons? Guns, Blood, Poison, Tin on the dotted line, witnessed by Mr Holler and Ms Rue, and get ood boy

They walk it off Their seconds open long blackwood cases and in theun There’s no sound in Burnt Corn but dust holding its breath The clock tower bongs out the end of everything I have time to be afraid before the first shot I have time to consider I haven’t a notion about what I’ll do when its over What I’m for And then the New York’s femur-barrel blows its elco roars out and catches Miss Sally Rue in the glowing golden eyeball and puts her out as fast as hiccuping Advantage New York

It goes like a battle goes Booeles fires with both pistols, and a thousand sparrows strea between them with the day just as fine as paint all around it New York opens her mouth, wider, wider, until her jaw hits the dust and she can s the birds in one hitching breath But one brown songbird, dragging six stars out of the nighthole behind it, claws through Johnny Holler’s chest and burns out his heart One-one

It’s like that, when Wizards fight Half the ti and half the time it looks like theater, like an awful old puppet show, the paint peeling on the o jerking on It’s happening and I can’t do anything, the bottles burst above ht in a slow burp of time New York let sour up out of her palets a streaoes dim in the sky like a picture house at interin

And Then

It’s over

The glass hits my scalp I taste scotch and blood and old, old wine

There’s a hand on eles I guess it’s the Groom, whoever that turned out to be I think about Gilly Spur and the daisies I think about Nevada and her kisses I think about Blue Bob, about Ashen and Cutter and the sh Burnt Corn Ranch I can hear ic on so in the world but the world, running funny, running doinding up, busting its springs and looking for its repair manual

It’s black Burnt Corn is gone and so is Gnaw Hollow There’s a veil of glass and dripping booze over my eyes, and the Groom lifts it up I knohen she kisses me it’s the Wizard of New York, and when she kisses me she ss me whole like she sed the sparrows I’ I see the insides of her, and they are vast

You need two If you’re going to start over You need a seed and a dark place

Everything happens at once

Mouse Koan

I