when I look back now at the abuse I took from her I feel shame that I was so innocent,

love, he said, gas kiss me off kiss my lips kiss my hair my fingers

murder the roaches spit out paper clips and the helicopter circles and cir… smelling for blood

rose red sunlight; take it apart in the garage like a puzzle:

once bought a toy rabbit at a department store and now he sits and ponders me with pink sheer eyes: He wants golf balls and glass

if I suffer at this typewriter think how I’d feel among the lettuce— pickers of Salinas?

a house with 7 or 8 people living in it getting up the rent. there’s a stereo never used and a set of bongos

at the window I watch a man with a power mower the sounds of his doing race like flies and bees

to be writing poetry at the age of… like a schoolboy, surely, I must be crazy; racetracks and booze and arguments with the landlord;

there he is: not too many hangovers not too many fights with women not too many flat tires never a thought of suicide

Everybody had gym period at the same time. Baldy’s locker was about four or five down from mine in the same row. I went to my locker early. Baldy and I had a similar problem. We hated w...