The year is 2540.
Archaeologists dig up
an ancient tar pit.
They find a sign
that says, “TOYS R US.”
They find a goat skeleton
covered with yarn, perfectly
preserved. They touch it,
it gets up and bites everyone.
They leave it alone.
One day God picked up Goat by his scruff.
“Do you believe in me?” he asked.
“It looks like I have to,” Goat answered.
“Think what you want,” God answered,
dropping him. “Bramble!” yelled Goat.
That night, he broke into Woolworths,
and destroyed the toy section. On a
rubber doll he found a yarn knot
and slipped it behind his whiskers.
His eyes felt like coal.
Goat rowed the boat out,
waving to Paw and Beast.
“I will become a fisher
of men!” Goat cried. “Just
catch fish,” Paw said.
Then he was alone. He saw
a train of fish heading North.
“Nothing will change this,” he said.
Then the water became grass, the fish
gophers. Goat was hungry.
Goat did not understand a word
Paw was saying. He could barely
hear him above the greens he was
chewing. But he felt like it was
raining, there were great holes
in the roof of the cave, & large
round drops were slipping in his
mouth and plopping on the roof
of his mouth. They went fishing, and
Goat caught trout. A syllable! he crowed.
from GOAT lies down on Broadway. For more info see here.
After dinner, Paw did dishes
while Beast talked to her mother
on the phone. Then they sat down
to talk. Now Goat, Paw said,
know there are two kinds of language:
the language of meaning, and
the language of symbols. One is
the real thing; the other just stands
for something else. One you hear
recognition, a slur; the other, syllables.
Paw picks berries on all fours.
He is getting up when Goat butts him.
Luckily he is butted in the right
direction, and doesn’t mind. Goat
keeps at him, nuzzles his knobs
to Paw’s flank. Why do you pick
berries? Paw lifts Goat up over
his shoulder and carries him home.
Goat becomes a centerpiece for Paw
& Beast’s dinner. He stands still,
chews greens.
from GOAT lies down on Broadway. For more info see here.
Goat is in the alley,
looking for food.
Suddenly John the Baptist
pops out of a garbage can.
He leads Goat to the kitchen
of the corner diner, sits
him down and gives him
a good meal. Goat eats
for hours. He is tired.
John leaves a big tip.
Goat reads his interview in People,
can’t remember saying any of that.
“I am an active Buddhist, vegetarian,
I enjoy situation comedy, MTV Closet
Classics, and vinegar on just about
anything.” In the photograph Goat looks
unbearably similar to Joan Collins.
“No one is sure what Goat is really thinking.”
He takes a vacation, writes letters.
In the end, he decides to shave his beard.
The theater was crowded and hot.
The movie is about war and the
nature of man.
One of the actors
gets over-excited and sprays
the audience with bullets. This,
Goat thinks, bleeding, is what
we can expect. He throws soda
in the soldier’s eyes, cracks
his skull with a kick, becomes
two dimensional.
Goat was throwing rocks
at the man in the moon
who kept smiling and
waving and then once
he pointed
and Goat
looked up: Sputnik,
dropping in flames,
enveloped the hill,
Goat laughing.
Translations from the English 