sleep

stretching on while the leaves fall apart
all was a constant
variables hid in trash cans hunting for cyphers
all was gold except for the nipple ring
dragging behind the y was the yxz
it didn't make sense but it was there
through the bear hole with a bottle of wine
no sense in another the temperature's fine
just take off those mits and sand those gums
not much to get worried about
then the sand turned to wane
soap turn to bubbles
when the tide came the wood fell asleep
decreasing the variables
leaving constant cyphers
behind the why
leaving zzzz

denis streeter   11/29/16

Donald Barthelme

I discovered  in Donald Barthelme in The Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales (1993) edited by Alison Lurie.  His tale was The Glass Mountain (1976).  And it was the strangest fairy tale I've ever read. Nothing like it.  It defies any categorization.  And he's dryly funny.  Just look up Donald Barthelme.  Oh.  And read The Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales.  I'm not going to tell you about that either.  Just check them out from the library.  You might be surprised that a writer like Donald Barthelme exists.  I feel lucky that he does.  His writing will inspire my nonsense poetry.


Denis Streeter   11/23/16