BUZZ the gold miner

buzz has pen light all inside his cap. he makes $20 a week and
lives in a shanty without electricity. He has worn knees and
is so dirty

it’ll never wash off. he is forty, i am sure of it, under seventy years
of dust laid in cracked skin. his dogs look cleaner

“you have to be reincarnated into this. when one of us dies, another miner comes along, exactly one.”

“I lost my dog in the split. My ex is the cook at this here bar. Mary’ll go into heat in six months. We want to breed her, but I come here because I’m a drinkin man”

buzz doesn’t know where his children are. he works at
Phoenix mines in Idaho Springs. In the winter

the mines shut down. he is sitting so close to the tv, he
can hear the history channel over the jukebox. he is
grimier than a bum, he is a mountain man.

“if the hole is grey we’re diggin for silver, if it’s gold, we’re dealing in
tons. the boss stands to make millions, i do
20 a week, sometimes a hundred
in tips from summer tours.”

buzz’s dogs roam the bar. he drinks his beer and
smokes his cigs. the ex brings him chili.

“my water pump is on the fritz. just tried to raise her live but she’s dead. can’t leave my car here either. now all’s I got is a gold nugget I stole out
in the truck, hell I got lots of’em in the shack
but I don’t have the duckets for a new pump, so

i’ll havta sail into denver, 30 miles to flat land, I’ll follow
the river dodging the mountains, until it
disappears at the beer factory…’