G.P. Skratz

G. P. Skratz (gpskratz@aol.com) makes music in

Oakland with the groups, Arundo & Smooth Toad.

I FORGET

I forget how many angels dance on the head of a pin.

I forget most of what my mother warned me against. I remember she

recommended an African bride to make fuller the family tree. I remember she

swore she’d throw herself in the line of fire, stand up to the Big Guy

Himself, to save me from eternal damnation one night after the nuns had

coaxed me to nightmare.

I forget the Middle English pronunciation that used to make reading Chaucer

aloud so fun & the glossary that made it intelligible.

I forget the name of the drop dead gorgeous young woman who was spending the

weekend with one of my best friends but made out with me past 2nd base to 3rd

but not all the way home cuz she was after all staying with him & who died a

month later in a cabin fire in the woods.

I forget all of the first season’s cast of Survivor except Richard Hatch:

they seem to have been downloaded when the second season uploaded.

I forget calculus, except that the title of Dylan’s tune, "Love Minus Zero/No

Limit" was referential to it, though I forget how--& I’ll bet Dylan does, too.

I forget what San Francisco party I was coming home from when I curled up by

the sidewalk & fell asleep before taking the early morning bus back to

Oakland.

I forget why my daughter needed a $200 a month clothing allowance when I was

making just over minimum wage.

I forget what kind of hash we were smoking, blond or black, when my brother

Rob & I cheered Neil Armstrong onto the moon in our father’s den.

I forget most of the German I knew, the Arabic alphabet, & all of the

Urdu--but I can still translate, & damn well too, thanks to the Poet’s

Prerogative.

I forget nothing about my father lying in pain on the living room floor, my

mother rubbing ointments on the numerous wounds on his backs & telling me

he’d gone to a bad barber, now get back to bed--& it still doesn’t make any

sense.

& I swear I remember one day when the sun set way earlier than predicted--the

whole earth in the dark--& Rob & I were sent to bed anyway, though it was

only one in the afternoon. & no-one’s said a word about it since.

________________

JUGGLER IN APRIL

unwatched, he opens

his arms not

in flight but surrender

as all creation

goes on around

& around & around

G. P. Skratz