Things To Do Between Home And School, 1986

Worry about money on a walk
                                     
half-fare
                           bus pass or hop
           on the back?

      Be embarrassed
           to see old family
                 friend looking to score
                           near Corlears
                                JHS 56, 
Henry St.

          Study big brown dirt holes on Essex Ave.
                       eighties-mode construction, 
workers off by 3
                           have books and 
self "fall" into them, or get pushed.
	
Spend hours on-site

        Get hit by flying hubcap
              in vacant lot
          on Broome and Clinton
where abandoned
      cars go to be set on fire
                  by friends and self

             Contemplate gawky horror of bifocals and 
emerging hormones

Rag on friends' clothes
get ragged on worse
for wearing same pair
of brown cords
all week

      Car batteries left in gutters
on Essex near Grand
make potential bombs
                  Mark thinks. Help him
carry them down Clinton to B
producing millions of holes
in jeans from acid drops.

		Watch Mark be snatched
              inside security shack
              on Delancey for kicking door
                 thinking no one inside.

                                     
      Wonder if he'll ever come out. 		

Keep eye on thieving tendencies
of self and friends

    Get whacked on head
         with price stamper
by bodega shopkeeper
       pissed off
          because you show up every day
                         and things disappear.

	                           Get pissed off at 
same shopkeeper       because you actually spend
a little money in there
    covering everyone else
       and you got the hardest whack
              (blood on scalp)


Hop ride on back of 18-wheel Evergreen
giant truck heading west near Canal
                     hold on tight as you can
                         when it zooms through 
Holland Tunnel

Wear holy shit poker face
while staring at driver
of car behind you

       Hope glasses don't fall off

                 Hope bookbag on one shoulder doesn't 
fall off.

Have friends Marcus and Mark
get worried about you being run over repeatedly
then sprint dumbly
into tunnel
on narrow catwalk
they jumped
off the truck
before it sped up.

		Decide not to follow
             advice of truck driver
             to hitch a ride
             going back. 	

Attempt to sneak past
sanitation workers
to get through
the tunnel on Jersey side.

      Get caught,
get pointed over to cop car
look inside -see Marcus and Mark

	Dissuade Mark from attempting to steal officer's gun while in back seat

		

Be brought back to 56
by Jersey donut squad car


              Get ordered at home by Mom
               to read For Whom The Bell Tolls
             		as punishment


Poem for everyone to appropriate
							For Jonathan Allen



	Flapping extremities


							Just say that end

word
                       and notice my spork
                              on the wrong 
side
                                     
           of the tectonic platelet
uh


				missed the nest

								well, wing-ed motion
							be not my gig

organs

ization                          B- anarchist 
vs. C Buddhist


                  a mudderfuddin audodiograffee


                   of Bros. and their flailing 
educations



speaking of passenger conduct, i.e. "your mother's got no neck"


			….and the scent of G-13 trails out of my grade bag


AUTO GLASS
						
STRAIT OVER LINDEN

J.B. HUNT		
						
WYCKOFF STEEL DIVISION

Is it 						I smell baby shampoo ahead
  groovy 					  no tears
     in                             in 
the wallpaper
      yr                            
thick fabric of reality
       psyche?




				
Scratch the Cortex


						
21st century censors in Queens


riding heavily through with their own complaint

						
"that fucking pure"



FILL

office space
Goble
Vinyl Super Sale
Danger: Do Not Get Off
A Down Neck Tradition
Roman-Jelley
Truck Parts


ME

Europa Motors Newark
Never Not Had Nothing To Say
Raritan Valley Line Change
Because my own splat
Head is empty. I got
Open with strangers, ie
Anyone. Raised that way
But lately too backed
Off/Urban Bird								IN



Keep Seats Off Feet/Pipe Cable Crossing


					
space is a substance you know.

you can smoke it.


					that's how we know.




find a young priest with smoldering eyes to guide you through this




		  …and I met an activist nun who helps the poor
                      Clinton said beware of the 
global poor
              & The Dead Kennedys sang "Kill kill kill kill 
kill the poor"


			a list of names erases cells in my nighttime head

or
is
it
the
other
way
around?

(Our employers
appreciate your
cooperation as
you carry out
their duties)
Monastic triage 							step

Hear you nothing that I say? 						step

The Left Hand of Darkness thumb wrestling Tizzy Boost		step		


                						echo-regalia demi-frieze


          loan forgiveness
     at low interest

        						a vow of poverty
							    by all elected officials


		mobile heart cactus in jar


on a bookshelf an old card from Eddie:



Happy Birthday from                   HELL



				Happy Birthday from 7th St.


love,


Anselm


After Joe Ceravolo


O Organ dicing double dip
    consultant gig

 O off-shore self account


   O booze to sanify the minutes


O stealing no one's care

        O enemies' bugged psyches

             O primitive progress

            O luxury and determination

                         O mutilated allegory 
Being