Dear ___: I’m sorry about not writing. I’ve been busy.
Pull the three-flats up by their roots.
If the basements are empty of ghosts to satisfy you,
don’t fill your aching belly with the air down there anyway.
It’s wet with mercury.
Dust the shadows from Rosemont Avenue
and bring a broom with you on Broadway
to sweep all the excess light from your path
into the gutter.
Do not stop at the comic book shop
or at the bar for a drink,
especially the one where the kid with the records
gives you your drink free
if you guess the number in his head.
He’s never thinking of a number
and is undeserving of your trust.
Continue if you have the heart
past the all-night diner where our friends and that famous writer
used to eat when they were tired.
The booths are beasts that want to devour you.
They will gnaw on your back with teeth so tiny
you will bleed out in your dreams
and wake up dead in the morning, unaware of it.
The turkey sandwiches are not satisfying.
Do not lose your footing
on the elevated train’s third rail.
Do not climb any hills that disappear in their own dust.
When you come to the place
where the water is black and bright
and seems to be dirty with the light
of extinguishing falling stars,
take out your cigarettes and get to work
filling up the skies again.
I will be coming your way in due time.
Imagine this song sung by three little Creole girls in French, little girls who cannot be over the age of 11 or 12:
On stormy seas we six years sailed,
And never once green land we hailed.
(2x)
The bitter seventh year came on,
We found our stores at last were gone.
(2x)
We ate the mice, we ate the rats,
And through the hold we ran like cats.
(2x)
And then at lots we took a try
To see which one of us would die.
(2x)
“Look, little John, if chance does will,
It’s you we’ll take, it’s you we’ll kill.
(2x)
“Too bad, Little John,” they cried
“Oh, courage, comerades, “he replied.
“For I see land on every side
And three white pigeons towards us fly.”
“And I see lovely sisters three
Come walking down all by the sea
“And if I set my foot on land
I’ll ask the fairest for her hand.”
