Fin-de-Siècle America
by Murray Shugars
Carriages were passing in the distance
When I took my first drink of your dantesque
Dreams and of course I ate a tawdry thought
Or two O remember how we emptied
Every drop of pleasure from the vessel
Long before the mountains were burning
Before we were dying of loneliness
Back when the fog parted down the middle
Of any road we walked where you told me
Good God what’s there to be common about?
Lift the tureen’s lid and ladle me out
A steaming mug of your sweet somber soul
Let’s drink this burning liquor like your life
Your sun–severed and windblown life
Transient
by Simon Pettet
breathe in
the bellies flop
the church bells
ring
outside
less and less now,
only every
other Sunday
now not even that,
now, not at all,
silent,
the steps
where,
sit, bitch, meditate,
rocking in your stocking feet,
howling
Why Be Blue?
by Simon Pettet
why be blue?
sky be grey?
heart be heavy now
contrariness be
not necessary
obstinacy be
damned
I’m going to sit right here on this spot
and whistle
to arrive late (a dilemma)
by Simon Pettet
to arrive
late
disturbing the chain
of the beads,
bees
and books
to be on time
but to be boorish, vain
tight
egotistic.

