Bryan is a junior at Sacramento State University and (obviously) an admirer of the New York School. He can be reached at a_bryan@hotmail.com.







After Reading Frank O'Hara, I Decided To Go Out


Its 7 : 36 in Sacramento and Los Angeles
but not in London or New York or any other
city where you can buy condoms with the word
Virgin
on them yes this is a really big Mega Store
I'm here to buy a copy of Evan Dando's I mean
the Lemonheads "Car, Button, Cloth"
"the best song is # five" the cashier says and
he will be right I leave and meet a sidewalk begger
who already has a warm cup of coffee I give him
change anyway he might need another you know
next door is a bookstore having a poetry reading these
are all the same two poets one who is serious and boring
and another who is not so serious and boring I go in and
listen to the one who's not so serious


--small digression--

personally, I don't think Frank spawned
enough imitators--we all should be writing
"I do this, I do that" poems; I've only read
one by someone who was still alive when I
read it, and one of the things she was doing
was drugs
though she was actually in New York, so I
guess that makes her a real New York
poet, though she said it was all about narrative
anyway, but this one I think is getting too
meditative, that is, unfocused so I should
undigress

--end of digression--


after listening to the poet read I buy a copy
of Franz Kafka's The Castle the cashier girl
has natural red hair and a nose ring she tells
me that she's bought that book but just hasn't
gotton around to reading it yet and that (smile) I
will have to come back and tell her if its good

I know what Frank said about movie theaters
but I wonder if you can get picked up in a bookstore



Bryan Carpenter


back to author list