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Song in Plaster: Luke Temple, “More Than Muscle”

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Luke Temple's new project. That’s the way things were then. You had your girl. You had several buddies. You had a bully. But Vitter changed all that. He added the existential crisis for us. He tossed that particular block of concrete through our rice paper fusuma. Big rock through heedy membrane. We weren’t the same. The bully grew a couple heads and became principal. We watched the ascent of the bully, statesman to president. First two headed president, while we’re all getting a little sick of firsts. Sickest of all are our girls.

Vitter, though, he wasn’t the bully. Vitter punched a hole in the wholeness with his crisis, it’s true. But he wasn’t a bully. We couldn’t have avoided it, the onset of crisis. Vitter got to it first, if you know what I mean? It’s not a matter of talent, just a matter of speed. Matter of time, I heard myself say just now.

We called Vitter on his cell. “Let’s get unanimous on some ethyl alcohol, friends,” he’d say. We all used to walk down by the tracks and drink. We had tracks back then. But when Vitter hit, when he started on his crisis, the drinking got serious. You used to wear your dusty jeans down there before, Red Wing boots, but with Vitter’s crisis on, it was top hats, white ties and tails. Just to drink with a couple buddies. Golly. Just for a cuppa sake. Not even sake. Ancient Age bourbon. And Vitter, when he got to the bottom of the bottle, he’d gather us around him and tell us a story or two. Clark Kent stuff mainly. He was strictly not interested in Superman. He said he preferred him with glasses and some kind of complex. Needed to study him, watch his every move.

In the meantime the president added another head. Got a sort of green intensity to his skin. Our girls said he looked peaked, but squirmed a little at the sight of him. They were wrong and they knew it. He looked strong. A strong green.

Vitter gathered us together and gave us some laudanum. What wonderful times. He gathered us together and gave us a touch of the ol’ hemlock. He shot a couple of us. But you couldn’t stay mad at him.

The president grew fifty feet and stole all our girls. We sure were mad. He smashed up some buildings downtown. The good ones too. The hotel we were renting for prom. The art museum we’d reserved for Paul’s birthday. Geez.

We called Vitter on his cell. He said, “It chafes me, boys. Chafes me red and raw. You know about me and my condition. Being so crisis-ridden. Actually ridden by crisis. Got its bit in my teeth, boys. Just thinking about those poor, perfect girls. In hand, out of pocket.”

The president set the girls down on a radio-broadcasting antenna outside of town. The boy needed a rest. I didn’t hardly blame him. But they broadcast a call for help from there. It went right to Vitter’s cell. He said, “That damn green thing’s got them and he’s sleeping. Now’s the time boys.” But Vitter wasn’t a man for action. We sat and drank a bottle of Ancient Age and listened to the radio. Vitter’s face shone like your average saint.

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Luke Temple – “More Than Muscle” mp3

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Comments

One Response to “Song in Plaster: Luke Temple, “More Than Muscle””

  1. Gabriel Stevenson on July 2nd, 2009 8:51 am

    I met that dude.

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