when I look back now
at the abuse I took from
her
I feel shame that I was so
innocent,

what i liked about e.e. cummings
was that he cut away from
the holiness of the
word
and with charm

almost dawn
blackbirds on the telephone wire
waiting
as I eat yesterday’s
forgotten sandwich

and the sun wields mercy
but like a jet torch carried to hi
and the jets whip across its sight
and rockets leap like toads,
and the boys get out the maps

I am in this low—slung sports car
painted a deep, rich yellow
driving under an Italian sun.
I have a British accent.
I’m wearing dark shades

They are building a house
half a block down
and I sit up here
with the shades down
listening to the sounds,

I read that he lost a suitcase ful
train and that they never were rec
I can’t match the agony of this
but the other night I wrote a 3—pa
upon this computer

your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is a light somewhere.

my father always said, “early to b
early to rise makes a man healthy,
and wise.”
it was lights out at 8 p.m. in our
and we were up at dawn to the smel

I was shacked with a
24 year old girl from
New York City for
two weeks—about
the time of the garbage