20

it’s so cold this morning: there’s
a downy clicking bark: there’s

starfrost on the windshield: let me
see, now: I’ve read that one should

never apologize: I wonder if I
should apologize: or should I just

let the evident be evident, since I
probably can’t condition that by

begging for mercy: who cares about
the excuses of a beggar—well, I

don’t know, maybe I would care: you
know, I take all these pills, every

morning: it’s because I’ve been
sick some: well, I think I lost a few

brain cells in one or two of those
episodes, and one of the drugs makes

me wonder if I’m doing medical
emotions or synergetic emotions: I

think my vocabulary doesn’t access
the way it used to, and I don’t have

always ready ways to the heights: the
summit of my aspiration has worn

down into a talus of incidentals:
okay? I mean please excuse me: will you

permit me to go on, however I can,
nevertheless: will you add to and

not take away from: I’ve believed
in you, though I’ve lied, too, at

times: I’ve never lied essentially
because it is after all the song that

tells the truth: and it sometimes
lies but its lies are the truth:

the one side of a date seed looks like
an elongated you-know, the rumpled

closure, lips half-met, sooooooooo
inviting: and how sweet the surrounding

meat is! bananas for brains (and a
couple in a papersack) we took off

early for Syracuse: it was 13 and
the trees in the valley where waters

and fogs run were entirely white,
fogs having clustered ice around

every twig: so brilliant in the
southeastern sun: whereas soon

after, as we were returning, all was
gone into a welcome darkness: you

know all: all is extremely poetic
and perfectly suited to such an

occasion: my vocabulary may be
chary but my diction is still sheer

poetry: I mean, my diction is
poetic: don’t you think?