Eleventh Hour
The bloom was off the economic recovery. “I just want to know one thing,” she said. What was that one thing? He’ll never know, Because at just that moment he heard the sound Of
June 11
It’s my birtday I’ve got an empty Stomach and the desire to be Lazy in the hammock and maybe Go for a cool swim on a hot day With the trombone in Sinatra’s “I’ve
Sexism
The happiest moment in a woman’s life Is when she hears the turn of her lover’s key In the lock, and pretends to be asleep When he enters the room, trying to be Quiet
Our Friendship (January 14)
We have a name for it In the South: Asshole buddies. It means we’ve known Each other so long It doesn’t matter That he’s an asshole In my opinion Or I’m an asshole In
September 22
It’s the day of the ram And the head of the year Rosh Ha’Shanah at Services I sat next to Mel Torme who outshone All comers with his bar Mitzvah heroics while on My
Examples (August 27)
The last Campbell’s tomato soup can Of the twentieth century is going to The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh That is an example of a sentence Another is this from a CEO in Fortune
January 31
Nothing extends a phone Call more effectively than Saying you’re on your way out But she wants to tell you The five things she requires In a man one is intelligence He must have
January 24
I was about to be mugged by a man With a chain so angry he growled At the Lincoln Center subway station When out of nowhere appeared a tall Chubby-faced Hasidic Jew with peyot
December 7
As I sit at my desk wishing I did not have to edit a book On poetry and painting a Subject that fascinates me Usually, but today is not as Usual, being today, white
The Left Bank
Don’t walk away, Renee, I’m just getting warmed up Your body is like a river And I’m going to swim across I want to explore the left Bank of you then the right You’re
April 26
When my father Said mein Fehler I thought it meant “I’m a failure” Which was my error Which is what Mein Fehler means In German which Is what my parents Spoke at home
June 6
No two are identical though They begin from the same Point in time the same point in The dream when the radio shuts Itself off in the middle of “Just in Time” (Sinatra version)
The Lift
The wonderful thing About being with You in this hotel Lift in London full Of people is that none Of them knows what you And I are about to do In bed or possibly
Ode To Pornography
If you could write down the words Moving through a man’s mind as He masturbates you’d have a quick Bonus bonk read, I used to think. But words were never adequate Or the point
Big Hair
Ithaca, October 1993: Jorie went on a lingerie Tear, wanting to look like a moll In a Chandler novel. Dinner, consisting of three parts gin And one part lime juice cordial, was a prelude