Michael Rothenberg

Michael lives in California and can be reached at walterblue@earthlink.net.

THE BARN

The right way

to approach

the broad side

of a barn

is with one eye

closed

and both hands

in your pockets

then start

whistling

to let it know

you're coming

HOWARD

Howard wore

7 hats at one

time and looked

good in all of them

But who the hell

is Howard?

QUESTION TO A JEWISH MYSTIC

Q: How is one supposed to interpret silence?

A: Ask a buddhist.

REUNION

Where one part meets the other part of the same

part which has changed

SUSTENANCE

Beef Stew Lo Mein

and Shredded Duck Porridge

with Philip Whalen

FESTIVITIES 1: Lunar Perigee

A couple of days ago winter officially began at 11:44

It was fun

IF THEY ARE SHY

for Carrie and Mauro

Human pillows

Yellow bow-tie

Armadillos

Tornado engine

Shredding my eyes

Down on my back

Talking to water

Skinny pianos

Jelly-fish clarinets

It's okay being a puppet until the executive producer

burns down the set

Special Effects:

Swimming through the arteries of a bionic woman

Gasping at a pore out of the pool of skin

Find myself soaked and grateful at her side

on the summer white sheets under my head

A fortune cookie with lotto numbers

and the same message I've been getting daily for 2 weeks

But I can't remember what it said

It's too easy to remember the familiar

Wise persons don't need to know who they are

Nor do they use credit cards to finance a poet's life

on the gamble they'll win The MacArthur Prize

if they work very hard and write like the Poet Laureate

of the United States in 1999 recycling Robert Frost

When I see birches I'd like to think Robert Frost's

been writing about them not some stand-up essayist

for the Lehrer News Hour

Tomorrow is a big day

I will eat lunch with a penguin

Carry packages from Moscow to Leningrad

Buy wine & cheese for a gathering of intellectual barbarians

Dine with an Argentine bandoneón player

while his girlfriend a jeweler recites the I-Ching

Then we'll go home to our modems

To our prayers(dot)com

Michael Rothenberg