HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NEAL CASSADY

Born in Salt Lake City
Eighty years ago today
In a fast-moving cross-country car
Or so you told us.
Were you alive, you'd be toothless, bloated
A disappointment
Not the young and handsome
Neal we know
Disheveled, drunk and Devil-may-care
Eternally tossing that hammer
Up into the air...
___________________
photograph of Neal Cassady by Allen Ginsberg