ACCOUNT OF MY DAYS

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  keyword(s) in poems:

Sequence: 5

untitled
some words last longer...


THEORETICAL
just read the words...


AN ACCOUNT
it wasn't as if any...


THE NIGHT OF THE BIG STORM
the neighbor boy with candles...


untitled
day that hesitates...


9/4/94
morning the flowers...


LUCK
of birds to have wings...


MEMORY
noon the infinite...


9/1/94
eulogy strains those heads...


HOW TO
ceremonies must be long...


A MAN OF WAR
rises through the air...


TALE
midnight pours out his heart...


TITLE NO TITLE
if your hand...


I'LL TRY AGAIN
it chases me...


24 HOURS
night as a cistern...


NOTICING
how to be literal as a last gasp...


LOOKOUT
looking out from a window in the treetops...


RETURN
in someone's house or in a barn...


MY WALK
being secret and smart...


ONGOING
that rush rush...


MONEY WORRIES
dreaming of an owl...


MABLE MCKIBBEN RENSBERGER
grandmother of underground places...


untitled
memory bled...


PAGE TORN FROM THE BOOK OF MEMORY
where it is flat the wind...


APOSTROHE
moon bone bright I...


untitled
for luck a fire...


EXAMPLES
slipped on the carpet at the turn of the stairs...


GIVE ME JUST A MINUTE
The room blurs. I can't think....


TELLING ABOUT
argument with my shadow...


DOCTORS MISUNDERSTAND
blue circles approaching my eyes...


HERE'S AN IDEA
what about...


COLDER WIND
everything is...


BEING TOLD GOODBYE
I am in the limited area...


MY LETTERS
continuator of hieroglyphs...


HELP ME
this poetry has grown too heavy...


RETURN THE FAVOR
doc buzzard in your cart...


SURVEYOR'S DREAM
to keep all the directions...


SEEN FROM A DISTANCE
the poems he has forgotten...


TRAVEL
atlas of devastation...


WE SING
day...


AS I SLEEP
I am blind stumbling...


PRACTICE WITH MY EYES
a hero of waiting...


WORDS I CANNOT UNDERSTAND
bad traffic on the way to...


CHANGE IN THE WEATHER
the wailing stops...


WHAT WILL I WRITE ON THE LAST PAGE
blank paper stares at me...

YOUTH OF AMERICA


sex now is not the sex it was
in my time sex was held like a day-late event
some of the people who might not have been there
were able to attend
others who wanted to come couldn't

there was a shore
with only a slim strip of sand
a wider belt of green leading up to a stone platform
where the cows were tethered

the clothes we wore didn't flatter us
and what we said was frankly stupid

sex was a boat tied up at the dock of sanity
there was a picnic lunch in it
but the picnic had been cancelled days before
and the lunch was no good

sex had an old dog
I remember this clearly
an old dog who could pick up pennies with his teeth
we liked that part especially
tossing pennies in front of that old dog

the sex of other people
was different but complementary
like two halves of a zipper we always said

in those days we always had sex
instead of a haircut because the barber was lovely

there we were in front of the TV
this was early TV mind you
and sex walked into the room sat down at the piano
and began banging out some damn boogie woogie thing
we had to ask it to shut up
the TV was on

where was I
oh yes youth of America
you don't know real sex
sex as it was before you were born
er maybe as it was that caused you to be born
anyway sex was sex was sex was sex was
sex

so if you think you don't have to be grateful
to me or anybody like me
just remember gas was cheap then
we went for a drive
wound up stopping someplace for a hamburger
so I forgot all about you
am I not allowed to forget