The Difference Between Pepsi And Coke
Can’t swim; uses credit cards and pills to combat intolerable feelings of inadequacy; Won’t admit his dread of boredom, chief impulse behind numerous marital infidelities; Looks fat in jeans, mouths clichés with confidence, breaks
October 12
My bag was missing at the airport “Just one bag?” “Yes, but it meant a lot to me” I had seen the bartender before, but where? “You didn’t tell me you had been to
December 14
This bed thy center is, these walls, thy sphere, The tarnished, gaudy, wonderful old work Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow, That never touch with inarticulate pang Those dying generations-at
June 19
What is it about the Abyss That tempts the young poet to kiss The air and head for the nearest cliff? This Unreasonable attachment to the bliss Of falling what accounts for it? Unlike
Ode To Modern Art
Come on in and stay a while I’ll photograph you emerging from the revolving door Like Frank O’Hara dating the muse of modern art Talking about the big Pollock show is better Than going
August 15
My new Web site is dropdead. com It’s interactive you get to choose how You’ll die, where, and at what age And it’ll still come as a complete Surprise to you I guarantee But
Maximism
What I propose is not Marxism, which is not dead yet in the English department, Not maximalism, which was a still-born alternative to minimalism, Nor Maxism, which rests on adulation of Max Beerbohm, parodist
One Size Fits All: A Critical Essay
Though Already Perhaps However. On one level, Among other things, With And with. In a similar vein To be sure: Make no mistake. Nary a trace. However, Aside from With And with, Not And
July 12
Wisteria, hysteria is as obvious a rhyme As Viagra and Niagara there must be a reason Honeymooners traditionally went to the Falls Which were, said the divine Oscar, An American bride’s second biggest disappointment
A Little History
Some people find out they are Jews. They can’t believe it. Thy had always hated Jews. As children they had roamed in gangs on winter nights in the old neighborhood, looking for Jews. They
Sestina
for Jim Cummins In Iowa, Jim dreamed that Della Street was Anne Sexton’s Twin. Dave drew a comic strip called the “Adventures of Whitman,” About a bearded beer-guzzler in Superman uniform. Donna dressed like
July 10
The sky was a midnight blue Velvet cloth draping A birdcage and no moon But the breeze was whistling And the sound of a car On Valentine Place was The rush of a waterfall
To Psyche
The longer I stare the lovelier You look in my eyes (so made such Mirrors and spies) and I’m not done Yet as I enumerate the virtues Of your smile, gracious in defeat, Victorious