On My Desk

Again, from Mark Young's terrific *Falsely Goethe*, Otloliths

"Day Fifteen

The pretend gypsy
who is also a
genuine mother
figure tells me
that a storm
composed of the
active ingrediets
from soft handwash
lotions is brewing
again. Expect
more of the same,
she says, unless I
can deliver to her
a 1950's-themed stereo-
scopic 3D extravaganza
of America's entry
into racing's victory
circles within the
next three days. She
also says she has
messages from
all our ancestors."

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Did you know David Shapiro was a child prodigy on violin and still plays?

from David Shapiro, New and Selected Poems, (1965-2006),The Overlook Press, 2007

*Friday Night Quartet*: 1, ST. BARNABAS

"My mother said
All surgeons want to do is surge.
And as one took the staples from her skull
She said, Neurosurgeons are not nice.

Mostly blind and leaning against a wall
She told my father, Irv, you can be replaced
God forbid I should sit where I want to sit,
And what's wrong with this chair pray?

Sitting and crying, she said
This is not Chekhovian
Or Tolstoyan David.
This is annoying.

Lying on the angiogram cot, strapped down and hot and bloody,
My mother said, The worst words in the English language
Are these David- Don't move.
And what do you think the best words are: Here's some water.

My mother said,
I'm not wavery because I have a wall
And I love it-
Walls are convenient because they don't move...."

David Shapiro Overlook Press