{"id":4423,"date":"2023-03-17T13:07:50","date_gmt":"2023-03-17T20:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/?p=4423"},"modified":"2024-12-06T09:28:55","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T17:28:55","slug":"american-revolver-by-jan-beatty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/american-revolver-by-jan-beatty\/","title":{"rendered":"“American Revolver” by Jan Beatty"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"issue681\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Found in Willow Springs 68<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to Author Profile<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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“American Revolver” by Jan Beatty<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I knew a guy named Red from Concord<\/p>\n\n\n\n

who robbed whorehouses for a living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You couldn’t tell just looking at him:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

his time in San Quentin, his love<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of the stolen .44–he was good in bed,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

biceps hard and waxed from years<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of prison workout–a real American<\/p>\n\n\n\n

centerfire revolver–When I asked why<\/p>\n\n\n\n

he did it, he said: to see the look in their eyes.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We took long walks on Stinson Beach,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

talked Social Science & World Geography–<\/p>\n\n\n\n

what he studied in prison. He god hard<\/p>\n\n\n\n

when he talked about the suffrage movement:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

all those heroic women & their struggles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes he would turn me over, call me<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Susan (like Susan B.), and then come<\/p>\n\n\n\n

reciting the 19th Amendment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The right of… citizens… of the United States<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

shall not be denied… or abridged…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

he could never make it past abridged,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

something about that word let it all loose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But his eyes most electric blue<\/p>\n\n\n\n

when he talked about the robberies:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in Richmond, Martinez, Pittsburg,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

down Highway 4, when he’d yell:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Give me all your money!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

and the hard girls in gauzy nighties<\/p>\n\n\n\n

& push-up bras squealed with fear<\/p>\n\n\n\n

wooden doors slammed, & half-naked men<\/p>\n\n\n\n

did a jittery dance with their socks<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those nights he’d fuck me standing and yell:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

give it to me!–the whites of his eyes glazed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

& gleaming, immersed in the maelstrom of<\/p>\n\n\n\n

peril & hot thrill, then he’d run to the waters<\/p>\n\n\n\n

within him, to that solitary jubilant lake.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":25234,"featured_media":719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpo365_audiences":[],"wpo365_private":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4423"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4423"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37466,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4423\/revisions\/37466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}