8-fold

Windy eats a hamburger as the Sheriff makes his rounds outside. Misfit Murphy walks the streets with Penny Greentips when they come across a junky stooped against a wall. Murphy strikes conversation. Trying to be on good terms with the junky, he throws ice in his mouth and spits out ‘Wut up, playa?’ Penny laughs to herself as the junky looks up to the gleam coming from Murphy's eye.

        A private jet passes overhead
        for a scenic view of the city.
        The people drop into paralysis
        of this too recent sight from
   
        the too near past.

    ‘I fight for justice,’ Eddy Pilot tells Paul. ‘I want for the law to be abided by, and, if not, I speak penalty against transgressors.’ The two walk the alley between a mansion and a gold and velvet salad bowl. ‘Amen, brother,’ declares Paul. ‘I want to feel safe in this town, but this place is been going downhill ever since they passed that "Liker" law. Glad to know you're fighting the good fight.’ ‘God bless America,’ says Eddy Pilot. 'God bless you, brother.' ‘Amen.’

        Spotlights shoot up like a cry
      
        for Superhero, reminding the
      
        city what’s been done, and why
      
        they must always walk
      
        in pairs.

    Dan Dean wants a bite to eat, steps into a burger joint, sees Windy. ‘Howdy, pard'ner.’ Windy looks up. ‘No soup today?’ Dean chuckles to himself. Windy stares at him, silently chews the last of his burger. Dean gets in line. Windy leaves without saying a word. He’s bumped into by Paul who presses past for a chicken sandwich. Windy quietly laughs to himself. Dean turns around. Paul stands beside him in line. Windy looks up and salutes Airforce One.

        The flag flies half mass outside
      
        the local Publicans’ office while
      
        the Derns’ office is closed. They’re
     
        out looking for a taller pole. Trophies
      
        were given over the weekend and
      
        Battle-ready won for peace. Meanwhile,
      
        NASA searched for moon ice using
      
        long-range missiles, and Middle Earth wants
      
        a new energy policy.

    ‘We’re hip, ya hear? Why you think people like me carry ice?' Misfit Murphy spits the ice out of his mouth, puts it in his pocket, and he and Penny Greentips walk away. 'Peace holmes.’ The junky sneezes in the shadows of two blue Towers. Penny offers to buy Murphy a bite. He accepts and the two go to the burger shack where they find Dan Dean, being converted by Paul, at a booth with two burgers and two drinks, no fries.

        People come and go at the museum.
        They ask each other, ‘What’d you think
      
        of that?’ before they look up and see a hot-air
     
        balloon followed by a chorus of flashes.

    Windy passes the sniffling junky, then tracks back, pulls out his point-and-shoot, snaps a picture, and goes on his way. At his studio, he makes thirty prints, eight by ten, then sews them into a quilt. It goes on display at the museum. The junky sees the quilt on the front page of his Wall Street Journal sleeping bag. Paul is appalled. Dan Dean and Misfit Murphy argue at the burger shack. ‘We gotta get these people up by example,’ says Misfit. ‘Show em the better way of sacrifice.’ ‘We must help these people,’ says Dean. ‘My people have proposed Monkeys for Junkies: Peers for the lonely.’ Paul clangs in, shouting, ‘If you hadn’t passed that law!..’ and they continue so on.

        Airforce One went home.
        The balloon ran out of gas.
        The golden salad bowl went
        to the Alchemist. Crime increased
        8-fold. The burger joint was packed.

    The Sheriff finds the junky cold in the corner. Eddy Pilot prosecutes Penny Greentips for insider trading. Misfit Murphy, remembering the hamburger, gets her off. Paul drinks the sacrament and rests against a dumpster. Windy sees him, snaps a picture, goes to his studio, and makes it into a Rubix cube. Dan Dean eats a burger, no cheese.

        In Washington, news broke about
        a helpless missionary. ‘Good men should
     
        not fall through the cracks of society,’ the
      
        Derns agreed. Congress tried
      
        to pass a bill to help him, but someone’s
      
        feelings got hurt in the process,
        so instead they passed a bill requiring
        
public apologies any time
        
someone is offended.