at their best, there is gentleness
some understanding and, at times,
courage
but all in all it is a mass, a glo
have too much.

I’ve come by, she says, to tell yo
that this is it. I’m not kidding,
over. this is it.
I sit on the couch watching her ar
her long red hair before my bedroo

first time my father overheard me
this bit of music he asked me,
“what is it?”
“it’s called Love For Three Oran
I informed him.

a girlfriend came in
built me a bed
scrubbed and waxed the kitchen flo
scrubbed the walls
vacuumed

I have lain in bed all day
but I have written one poem
and I am up now
looking out the window
and like a novelist might say

dumb,
Jesus Christ,
some people are so dumb
you can hear them
splashing around

the dream of a man
is a whore with a gold tooth
and a garter belt,
perfumed
with false eyebrows

too much too little
too fat
too thin
or nobody.
laughter or

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

he said, “I was working in Hollyw
working in Hollywood and he was
the worst: he was too drunk to sta
end of the afternoon and so I had
into a taxi