oh there s hope in poetry comfort in fiction like the voice of walt whitman for example i have noticed something you will have noticed this too we cut the words off short we like either or we are the virgin and the whore you will have noticed this too so i am led to say purely for example purely for survival and speaking of course from my own experience when im drunk it s easy when im sober i try not to love you so hard will not love you so hard you will have noticed this too for you were on the other side in a san francisco loft you couldn t pay for i could feel your heart beat through the floor boards i waved my hope around like a cheap flag whose colours had faded whose emblem was laughable what is whiskey in the morning but a clear path to the door what would uncle walt say to the silent floorboard hope hope