277

KIEV

The railing and the stone steps.
A tinted glass behind which.
Sweet as onions. The stairs to
The super, a plywood. The cans
Are durable rubber. The numbers
Are stickers. No mail checkerboard
Tiles heat pipe. White wall and
Red brick brown. Two bends
The corridor around the restaurant
Bathroom. Miami green. The stairs
Have windows an art building touches.
Dancers. And then in the door
Across the fire escape welders.
A single squirrel visits. We feed him.
On top of the refrigerator a fishtank.
Narrow bookshelf for pots and cds.
The cabinets are beige and wood chip.
Water crumbles thme stainless sink.
I don't figure out how to light the oven
For half a year. Then, chickens, beef.
A device to hold the chicken upright.
Translucent basters with yellow bulbs.
Carrot, turnip, onion. The cat hides
In this corner. Also behind radiators.
The hallway bookshelf gives sunrises
A window. The closet papers. Clothes
Into every corner. The stereo sits here.
Around the corner is Anna's clsoet.
There is a shelf here, and a flag on
The wall. Framed pictures. Or pictures
Of windows. The seventeen dollar
Paintings. Two cape cod houses.
The dresser we share is between the round
Table and the bed on the floor.
At the foot is an angel pedestal
Supporting the ficus. The floor is
Mainly even. Another bookshelf betwen
The pedestal and the bathroom door.
White tile and fixtures. A little
Chipboard vanity. Uncleanable grout.
Bobo. Bon Ami. The police --
Our neighbors are giants. Tanya has
An immoderate dalmatian. She plays
Al Green I'll Take You There
Every day and night. Downstairs
Is empty a long time. The super
Has parties there. Sometimes
The super is on the roof opposite
Staring at us. He lets the old
Man downstairs up there once.
Then a giant minister woman
("Big Bird") moves in. One night
Anna stomps to Prince and we
Are reminded of it often by Vera,
The landlord's panicked secretary.
McSorley's gets more business.
Burp Castle gets more business.
The crack dealers use our stoop
One summer or two then go.
Walking home from work a burning
Newspaper drops from the blue low
Dorm. Apap. I walk to work
We walk to the pool. I join
And lift some weight. The poems
Of this time try to hide
What they know. The newsstands
Have solitudes. Little gem spa
Has an egg cream too. Notebook
After notebook comes into my
Possession. I am singing swimming
Without much dereliction. Nights
Have magnets that I float above
In three or four places being
Cured. A radio station comes out
Of it with ghost shoes, and
I carry a sheaf of ancient life
Past siphoned electrical up rickety
Ladders. The tanks don't come
While I invoke the incapacitated
Voices. Dogs and acoustic guitars
And the djs do. In the bar
One hands his essays on Medieval Irish
Another conceals his poems.
The moralizing one starts another
Place. Then one time I get a
Roll of toilet paper with Drinky Crow
On it inscribed "Keep Drinking,
Jordan!" but I don't. I get
Married and buy houses. Notices
To Cure occupy me, and cat sleep.
The cat comes out after two days
Behind the radiator when two girls
With long curly hair lie back on our bed
In the smoke of a party. He approaches
Them and we see at last that he
Is black long-haired with a gut
And a handsome face that looks at you.
I begin to develop the idea that time
Is funny around now. Also we collect
Olivettis. I buy one for a hundred dollars
And the next month the store is
Fresh Burritos. Around now music slows
Down. Bands are dumb and djs elusive.
We go see Cruz at Gold Bar. There
Is a little world of the hajj
Underneath the floor. The time between
Seeing people and the changes. This
Someone tells me is what happens in
Time Regained. It is practically all I think
About, this time between. Stories imitate
This time like an ego. Poems lick it
But it is night and the food is
Banana shakes. Something hostile
Takes over their impressions of me.
Someone points out to me I am not
Giving them what they want. Still I keep jobs.
The movie theater for sneaking chicken
Closes. In it such Marilyn Monroe such
Arletty as the city will not see again.
There is sitting in the park but this changes.
I learn how the computers work but I stay
Relatively poor. Business magazines don't help
Because I stay pushing at the same boulder.
Going into the classroom -- the theory of
Correspondences induces tears of happiness
In nine-year-olds. O ego! I wonder.
Can you paraphrase the seams? Therapy
Has fixed my stomach, which may have had
A time disorder. The job I leave has
Its sculpture in Schenectady.