Big Boy

I was having a burger

At Big Boy’s

Thinking about

Apostrophes

I was feeling

Well

Grateful

To my ears

For all the work

They have put in

Over the years

I was wondering if

The Evaporator

Will come for me

Or if I will go

To him

I was feeling normal

Eating the world

Thinking about

My neighbor’s house

On fire

And about my own

Inhabited by flames

For the Earth

It was just another day

Beheadings

Severance pay

Who invented laughter

Death

And ruin?

I was

Uh

Overcome by the need

To buy

Baby clothes

By the need to raise up

My children

All over again

I was negotiating

With the speed

Of light and dark

Missing the jug band

Of my family

Farflungians all

Belongians

I be long

To

A minor deity

Was sitting

In the booth

Over there

Talking on her cell phone

Giving dubious instructions

To nearby streams

Bad advice to the deep shadows

Of ferns

I was feeling

The world bigger

And more evil

And more gorgeous

And more populated by

Secrets

Than I’d imagined

I wanted

Above all

To de-monetize

My dirty hands

Wanted the rest of my life

To be

A sporting event

To dance

My heart away

Under the midnight sun

I wanted to be at dockside

To embrace

Victor Serge

Andre Breton

Anna Seghers

Wilfredo Lam

And Claude Levi-Strauss

Arriving from Marseilles

Fleeing the Nazis

In March 1941

“More or less endowed with consciousness

Particles are really all

We are”

Serge would say

The same Serge

Who later marries

Laurette Sejourne

Who saves my life

Much later

In Mexico

Generations of catastrophe and delight

Over-extended empires

Heads hung in shame

I was sitting there

Inhaling fire

Exhaling ice

Tears

At the very heart

Of things

Said Virgil

Ooo a snake slithered across the placemat

I saw keyholes

Instead

Of eyes

Oh sweetest ones

I thought I’d maybe

Hold my ground

And fly!

                              -- New York, October 9, 2009