Poetry

Avenue E

East 4th Cultural district
Avenue E
 
is not an avenue on the island of Manhattan,
and the insistent lick of the East River or the East River Drive
can't ever make it one.
On the far side of that river a real Avenue E exists--
but that meant Brooklyn,
and we never went there, Steven,
because for us Manhattan was the point of all those years;
not the Empire State Building or Chrysler Building
but out on the edges,
where those crumbling restaurants served borscht bialies and

A Mélange of Poems

A Mélange of Poems
Conference of the Century
 
The birds     in their conference
             speaking                           in tongues
     speaking praise         to someone
from the shelter
                                     of their aviary
     while the boy
lies dying                           in the mud
                                                             below

     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

A Good Week for a Birthday

1.

As a Gemini in good standing

I divide everything in two

cannot conceive of Adam without Eve

dividing Eden between them

for one full day

in Ithaca in the sun and then to bed

the bed we made of wood from an olive tree

 

2.

There is nothing like a dame

a Martini

the last at-bat of the first game of the 1988 World Series

a Martini with a dozen raw oysters

a jug of water for the geraniums on a day of full sun

a joint

a bedroom farce

a weekend in a swank hotel in Montreal

"The Epic of Gilgamesh"

[field_image-fid]

I.

 

How can I rest;

How can I be at peace?

 

Why have you come on so great a journey;

for what have you traveled so far,

crossing dangerous waters?

 

Now that I have toiled and strayed so far over

the wilderness, am I to sleep, and

let the earth cover my head forever?

 

If you are the great Gilgamesh,

yr Polis A | Transcripts

it has to do w. the men
women & children of Polis
B who harvest their data in
this
polis of ours the best polis
on earth
is | hell | are the forgotten
denizens
under the undertow the
underfoot
we Polis A present this
report
of thanksgiving bc
| work | not for the labor
of the denizens you are
going to meet
we might not start

Hard Tyme

Greyhound tomorrow

Axe, leathers, Aqua Net: check

“Adios, Fort Wayne!”

 

♫You know where you are?

You’re in the jungle, baby!♬

DISHWASHER WANTED

 

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