frank o'hara

after frank o'hara:

It is 7 : 59 in Philadelphia a Tuesday
this morning I plowed through the hazy fog
and I did not know whether the line
for my latte would be long. hey,
remember that time? we stole
the oranges from the
dining hall and I made you
carry them in your pockets, one in
each, and also an apple in hand. at
9 : 30 we walked back to VAN PELT
because it is finals and we must

imprison ourselves. I tripped on the
bricks that stuck out, LOCUST you
are indeed the greatest of pests. in
WEIGLE we let our spirits slip through
the slit windows and forgot what
daylight was and how the dappled
shadows look or the tingling of
warmth on our bare skin because
we are never bare anymore, haven't
you heard that it is winter?

at 2 :00 in the morning it was raining,
we were soaked, soaked. my shoes filled
with puddles and I squelched my way
home to MAYER and thought of
summer in the country, in CALIFORNIA,
while you held the black bending umbrella
against the wind and murmured pity,
as I complained incessantly. really,
you should have been saying, "someone
call the waaaaahbulance,"
a wise adage often repeated by my colleague
Zachary Wasserman during the times when I
am going on and on, yes, like an ambulance. I
have heard that at times I am a fabulous
example of the Doppler
effect.

but tonight I am quiet, and indoors, and there is
the vanilla latte, no line necessary, with all the
sugar and foam and milk nothing missing, I am
reading ROBERT CREELEY
whom I especially love, especially
THE LANGUAGE, which hits me
right where I need it

*******

this place is crowded, i almost forgot my
passport on the conveyer belt and
i think about buying a book for the ride
but always remember that i have brought
my own but, the pretty inane
covers just look so appealing and new.

to be dragging our lives around on wheels - have
you tagged yours? because i have, i'm
afraid of it getting lost/stolen.
i think at some point after
you keep going back and forth you
start to realize that
you're going and never
returning. sometimes you just want to ...

and as i step on board over the gap and see
the far away asphalt below i remember that oh
flying makes me seasick