Randy Welch: You Don't Know Me but

You Don't Know Me, but:

In this lifetime, so far
I have been an eagle scout, anarchist,
anabaptist, episcopalian,
existentialist,
pentecostal,
gnostic,
pagan.

Tutored in Hebrew by wise old rabbis,
brow-beaten senseless by desert shaman,
reared by physicists,
tempered by alchemists,
attacked by seagulls,
bitten by rattlesnakes
and a brown recluse . . .

I have fallen off a palomino,
played rugby,
broken numerous bones,
climbed steep mesas,
‘tubed the Colorado,
watched the sun rise and set on two different oceans
and spent the night in a Mexican jail. . .

It is not unusual that I be possessed by spirits.
I have practiced anarchy within church and state
& seen many,
though not all,
the faces of God . . .

I have fought demons,
spoken in tongues
and talked to angels and trees . . .

I have done without food for forty days,
spent a week in the desert alone,
eye-witnessed a hurricane and two tornadoes,
ingested hallucinogens,
seen mescalito,
gotten way too stoned/
stupefied drunk and
become a vegetarian . . .

I have studied the beats, prayed to the saints,
played symphonies, wailed raucous be-bop –
bluegrass –
punk –
and graffitied government buildings . . .

I have been married, been divorced,
been a father, and a son,
sought wisdom, acted the fool,
joined the wobblies, grown vegetables
and fallen in love with a gypsy-woman . . .

I have washed dishes, tended bar,
cleaned toilets, designed web pages,
presided over a funeral, two weddings
and worked at a thrift store . . .

I have lived on two reservations,
drawn caricatures for five dollars a pop,
sold fajitas from a pushcart,
and served communion . . .

I’ve been an existentially inclined entheobotanist,
janitor, poet, psychonaut
and jumped a freight train or two . . .

I’ve had a couple of breakdowns
and watched an old hobo die in my arms . . .

I am an artist who aspires to janitorial greatness,
I am a custodian of the arts.

Like you, Nick,
I am already a frequenter of Reality Sandwich . . .