“Nomad Exquisite”
by
Wallace Stevens
RIP Lawrence Ferlinghetti, 1919-2021
by
“Living”
by
C.D. Wright
If this is Wednesday, write Lazartigues, return library books, pick up passport form, cancel the paper.
If this is Wednesday, mail B her flyers and K her shirts. Last thing I asked as I walked K to her car, “You sure you have everything?” “Oh yes,” she smiled, as she squalled off. Whole wardrobe in front closet.
Go to Morrison’s for paint samples, that’s where housepainter has account (near Pier One), swing by Gano St. for another bunch of hydroponic lettuce. Stop at cleaners if there’s parking.
Pap smear at 4. After last month with B’s ear infections, can’t bear sitting in damn doctor’s office. Never a magazine or picture on the wall worth looking at. Pack a book.
Ever since B born, nothing comes clear. My mind like a mirror that’s been in a fire. Does this happen to the others.
If this is Wednesday, meet Moss at the house at noon. Pick B up first, call sitter about Friday evening. If she prefers, can bring B to her (hope she keeps the apartment warmer this year).
Need coat hooks and picture hangers for office. Should take car in for air filter, oil change. F said one of back tires low. Don’t forget car payment, late last two months in a row.
If this is Wednesday, there’s a demo on the green at 11. Took B to his first down at Quonset Point in August. Blue skies. Boston collective provided good grub for all. Long column of denims and flannel shirts. Smell of patchouli made me so wistful, wanted to buy a woodstove, prop my feet up, share a J and a pot of Constant Comment with a friend. Maybe some zucchini bread.
Meet with honors students from 1 to 4. At the community college I tried to incite them to poetry. Convince them this line of work, beat the bejesus out of a gig as gizzard splitter at the processing plant or cleaning up after a leak at the germ warfare center. Be all you can be, wrap rubber band around your trigger finger until it drops off.
Swim at 10:00 before picking up B, before demo on the green, and before meeting moss, if it isn’t too crowded. Only three old women talking about their daughters-in-law last Wednesday at 10:00.
Phone hardware to see if radon test arrived.
Keep an eye out for a new yellow blanket. Left B’s on the plane, though he seems over it already. Left most recent issue of Z in the seat. That will make a few businessmen boil. I liked the man who sat next to me, he was sweet to B. Hated flying, said he never let all of his weight down.
Need to get books in the mail today. Make time pass in line at the P.O. imagining man in front of me butt naked. Fellow in the good-preacher-blue-suit, probably has a cold, hard bottom.
Call N for green tomato recipe. Have to get used to the Yankee growing season. If this is Wednesday, N goes in hospital today. Find out how long after marrow transplant before can visit.
Mother said she read in paper that Pete was granted a divorce. His third. My highschool boyfriend. Meanest thing I could have done, I did to him, returning a long-saved-for engagement ring in a Band-Aid box, while he was stationed in Da Nang.
Meant to tell F this morning about dream of eating grasshoppers, fried but happy. Our love a difficult instrument we are learning to play. Practice, practice.
No matter where I call home anymore, feel like a boat under the trees. Living is strange.
This week only; bargain on laid paper at East Side Copy Shop.
Woman picking her nose at the stoplight. Shouldn’t look, only privacy we have anymore in the car. Isn’t that the woman from the colloquium last fall, who told me she was a stand-up environmentalist. What a wonderful trade, I said, because the evidence of planetary wrongdoing is overwhelming. Because because because of the horrible things we do.
If this is Wednesday, meet F at Health Department at 10:45 for AIDS test.
If this is Wednesday, it’s trash night.
Enough! enough! enough!Somehow I have been stunn’d. Stand back!Give me a little time beyond my cuff’d head, slumbers, dreams, gaping,I discover myself on the verge of a usual mistake.That I could forget the mockers and insults!That I could forget the trickling tears and the blows of the bludgeons and hammers!That I could look with a separate look on my own crucifixion and bloody crowning.I remember now,I resume the overstaid fraction,The grave of rock multiplies what has been confided to it, or to any graves,Corpses rise, gashes heal, fastenings roll from me.I troop forth replenish’d with supreme power, one of an average unending procession,Inland and sea-coast we go, and pass all boundary lines,Our swift ordinances on their way over the whole earth,The blossoms we wear in our hats the growth of thousands of years.Eleves, I salute you! come forward!Continue your annotations, continue your questionings.
“House: Some Instructions”
by
Grace Paley
If you have a house
you must think about it all the time
as you reside in the house so
it must be a home in your mind
you must ask yourself (wherever you are)
have I closed the front door
and the back door is often forgotten
not against thieves necessarily
but the wind oh if it blows
either door open then the heat
the heat you’ve carefully nurtured
with layers of dry hardwood
and a couple of opposing green
brought in to slow the fire
as well as the little pilot light
in the convenient gas backup
all of that care will be mocked because
you have not kept the house on your mind
but these may actually be among
the smallest concerns for instance
the house could be settling you may
notice the thin slanting line of light
above the doors you have to think about that
luckily you have been paying attention
the house’s dryness can be humidified
with vaporizers in each room and pots
of water on the woodstove should you leave
for the movies after dinner ask yourself
have I turned down the thermometer
and moved all wood paper away from the stove
the fiery result of excited distraction
could be too horrible to describe
now we should talk especially to Northerners
of the freezing of the pipe this can often
be prevented by pumping water continuously
through the baseboard heating system
allowing the faucet to drip drip continuously
day and night you must think about the drains
separately in fact you should have established
their essential contribution to the ordinary
kitchen and toilet life of the house
digging these drains deep into warm earth
if it hasn’t snowed by mid-December you
must cover them with hay sometimes rugs
and blankets have been used do not be
troubled by their monetary value
as this is a regionally appreciated emergency
you may tell your friends to consider
your house as their own that is
if they do not wear outdoor shoes
when thumping across the gleam of their poly-
urethaned floors they must bring socks or slippers
to your house as well you must think
of your house when you’re in it and
when you’re visiting the superior cabinets
and closets of others when you approach
your house in the late afternoon
in any weather green or white you will catch
sight first of its new aluminum snow-resistant
roof and the reflections in the cracked windows
its need in the last twenty-five years for paint
which has created a lovely design
in russet pink and brown the colors of un-
intentioned neglect you must admire the way it does not
(because of someone’s excellent decision
sixty years ago) stand on the high ridge deforming
the green profile of the hill but rests in the modesty
of late middle age under the brow of the hill with
its back to the dark hemlock forest looking steadily
out for miles toward the cloud refiguring meadows and
mountains of the next state coming up the road
by foot or auto the house can be addressed personally
House! in the excitement of work and travel to
other people’s houses with their interesting improvements
we thought of you often and spoke of your coziness
in winter your courage in wind and fire your small
airy rooms in humid summer how you nestle in spring
into the leaves and flowers of the hawthorn and the sage green
leaves of the Russian olive tree House! you were not forgotten
Biblioklept