Zelle: [email protected]

https://www.gofundme.com/f/arkansas-run

As many of you know, I drove around in Mexico illegally for a year and a half before crossing up through narco checkpoints and the border with both expired driver's license and license plates. Then, I drove in circles around Texas for a couple months before visiting an online video ministry in Arkansas, where I was able at long last to get my legal documents renewed. It took some time. I haven't taken the driving test since the 80s, and had to take the written part at least twice (maybe 3 times?), before taking the road test. Which I passed immediately. It was a strange, liberating feeling to not have to drive in your rearview mirror, prepared to take an unplanned turn at any moment, if a cop found himself behind you. It was easier in Mexico. They had no system to check whether or not my plates expired in 2028, which is what it said after I altered the "3" in 2023 with a Sharpie. But in the US, that would probably be frowned upon as some sort of crime. In Mexico, the cops will look the other way for 20 or 30 bucks. Here, they do things differently. 

I am currently in Farmington, New Mexico, waiting out the endless Colorado winter in a balmy, free location. We just came down from 3 insanely stressful weeks on Angel Peak, where there was an incident with a pitbull, a machete, and insane, maddening winds that required the use of a wingsuit, just to brush your teeth. There's something about having the door of the van violently ripped out of your hand, and being genuinely grateful to have the van to sit in, all day, alllll day, all day long without a break, that drives a man to the edge of sanity. It's not a matter of "going into town" and "doing something normal" (including get a job), when your cat is sitting in the van with you, and can't sit in the hot van while you're at work (or playing a show), and in fact got you fired from your relatively-ideal job in Phoenix, because he couldn't stand to be alone that long. I've tried. I always have. But I am a poet and a songwriter, and my resume is written in the stars. I've had a lot of jobs. None of which have ever been able to pull me away from my actual work. But I can't leave Louie in the van.

Maybe if he had a wingsuit 🪽

All of which I say to say,

Even though the situation with the video ministry fell apart, because the wife didn't want me to go to her daughter's wedding, and instead of telling her husband to give me a polite, hardline exit date, decided it would be easier to manipulate him to turn against me (I spared the reader the boring details, but the story is told in part in the article Believers in the Mist),

I think the best option is to return to Arkansas, because it's a cheap tag, I'm already registered there, and the van is unlikely to pass any kind of state exam, being without working turn signals and brake lights as it is.

The shocks are also shot, but not technically required for operation of the vehicle. The left rear shock is currently strapped to the chassis with a rope and some zip ties. It should hold for the indefinite future.

It is 900 miles from Farmington to Fort Smith, which means 3 days, and 3 stops (including Fort Smith, where I would need to spend at least 2 nights). The way I see it, I have 3 options:

     1. Go anywhere, unpack, and get the van worked on and registered in whatever new, cat-friendly state I happened to be in.

     2. Go back to Arkansas and just get a new sticker.

     3. Let the plates expire, and drive around in the rearview mirror like an American refugee in Mexico, until the first option opens up, or we get busted.

Option 1 is ideal, but not entirely dependent on me, and option 3... For obvious reasons really doesn't seem like an option. Which leaves option #2.

I am asking for $1000 to get us back to Arkansas long enough to renew our legal status (including insurance), and head on down the road. Perhaps to your house. Or my friends in Ohio, maybe Texas. New York City?

California?

Or back to the Four Corners, which is not the worst place to get stuck for the summer. Just stay away from Angel Peak, unless you are looking for a place to start a machete farm and breed pitbulls, in which case I highly recommend it.

You can see Colorado from 50 miles away. I miss it, kinda. We had it good there, too.

Not really. We had our moments, but it was an unusually rough season, perched on the edge of the heavenly abyss. I am grateful to know I will never see the place again.

But it is spectacular.

If you believe that what I do is real work, deserving of reasonable compensation, donating through GoFundMe is great, but other options do exist. Zelle is immediate, and free (my Zelle address is pablosmoglives@ protonmail .com), and PayPal and CashApp also work. I am hoping to leave the Four Corners in about a week.

If you don't believe in me, the line ends back there, somewhere in the 80s. It's fine, I'm not insecure, but your opinion is not a revelation. Some cultures understand the concept of "patrons of the arts;" other cultures patronize them. If you are in the latter camp, kindly keep your tired, predictable derision to yourself.  

Thank you in advance, in addition to the meantime.

Onward 🪽,
NP

p.s. "Supposing that gain is godliness" is a common problem. If you see it, withdraw from it. Enabling thieves by assuming laziness on the part of people who have been legitimately robbed, is a sin that will not go unpunished. Tread lightly. Not all financial necessity is a result of the worthlessness and degradation of the needy. Your livelihood is a gift, not a foregone conclusion resulting from your great and worthy effort. Stop taking credit for it. Haughty presumptions will be stripped from anyone who doesn't cast them off. A haughty spirit comes before a fall. Proverbs 16, I think. Tread lightly.

Thank you 🙏