To end up alone
in a tomb of a room
without cigarettes
or wine—
just a lightbulb

there are worse things than
being alone
but it often takes decades
to realize this
and most often

yes, they begin out in a willow, I
the starch mountains begin out in
and keep right on going without re
pumas and nectarines
somehow these mountains are like

during my worst times
on the park benches
in the jails
or living with
whores

this man used to be an
interesting writer,
he was able to say brisk and
refreshing things.
at the time

I been readin’ you for a long time
I just put Billy Boy to bed,
he got 7 mean ticks from somewhere
I got 2,
my husband, Benny, he got 3.

the final curtain on one of the lo
musicals ever, some people claim t
seen it over one hundred times.
I saw it on the tv news, that fina
flowers, cheers, tears, a thundero

he sat naked and drunk in a room o
night, running the blade of the kn
under his fingernails, smiling, th
of all the letters he had received
telling him that

in the hospitals and jails
it’s the worst
in madhouses
it’s the worst
in penthouses

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