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"What Ely Was."

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"It was the mauve, the
ocher of canned tamales.

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It was the dark silt
of gravy burning.

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It was the hominy's
white knuckles.

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It was fat that made every
surface gleam like a pigeon's

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neck, like a spill of gasoline.

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It was melt-down crusts of oleo
on the tuna casserole, toast

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that was blackened to a piece of
macadam, a singed field, a roof

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shingle.

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It was the cool unguent
of jam on a spoon,

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but even that sweet
thing had a sting.

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And it was good for you,
that needle, that pin.

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Under the beautiful
blue glass dome of plum

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preserves was a
bite of penicillin.

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I longed for chocolate
both sweet and bitter,

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fried green plantain,
mustard, onion, red tomato,

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rice and black beans in
a pot, Moroccan olives

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with cayenne, Haut-Brion,
cabbage and ham.

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And somewhere some
green coast exported

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all I wanted of all I wanted.

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There was a kingdom where my
hunger fit, both mind and body,

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all of it.

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And so for me at Sunday sermons,
the serpent coming lightly

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and perfectly into the
garden was as smart as Eve,

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was pink and fat and
pliant, was tough as a root,

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but blue or green.

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The uninterruptedness of him--

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from tail to lip, all one thing,
consistent as a walking stick.

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Or he was a ruby cummerbund, a
glove on its way to the opera,

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dropped in the dust of
this godforsaken place.

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Beside his motionless
heat, Ely, Nevada,

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was as dull as two buttons.

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He was the green light.

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He was the go-ahead.

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He was the spark, the road.

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He was the ticket out."

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