by heart/memory
This is meant to be in praise of the interval called hangover,
a sadness not co-terminous with hopelessness,
and the North American doubling cascade that keep going
"this diamond lake is a photo lab"
And if predicates really do propel the plot,
then you might see Jerusalem in a soap bubble
or the appliance failures on Olive Street,
across these great instances,
because "the complex Italians versus the basic Italians."
Because what does a mirror look like when it's not working,
but birds signing a full tone higher in the sunshine.
I'm going to call them honest eyes until I know if they are,
in the interval called slam clicker, realm of Pacific,
because the second language wouldn't let me learn it
because I have heard of you for a long time occasionally
because diet cards may be the recovery evergreen
and there is a new benzodiazepene called distance
anti-showmanship, anti-showmanship, anti-showmanship.
I suppose a broken window is not symbolic,
unless symbolic means broken, which I think it sorta does,
and when the phone jangles, what's more radical, the snow or the tires
and what does the Bible say about metal fatigue
and why do mothers carry big scratched-up sunglasses in their purses.
Hello to the era of going to the store to buy more ice
because we are running out.
Hello to feelings that arrive unintroduced.
Hello to the nonfunctional sprig of parsley,
and the game of finding meaning in coincidence.
Because there is a second mind in the margins of the used book
because Judas Priest sang a song called Stained Class,
because this world is 66 percent Then and 33 percent Now.
And if you wake up thinking "feeling is a skill now"
or "even this glass of water seems complicated now"
and a phrase from a men's magazine (like single-district cognac)
rings and rings in your neck,
then let the consequent misunderstandings (let the changer love the changed)
wobble on heartbreakingly nu legs, into this street-legal nonfiction,
into this good world, this warm place that I love with all my heart,
anti-showmanship, anti-showmanship, antishowmanship.
"Cassette County" by David Berman