66
The cloth
kept wet
under the pin
67
getting past
things past —
naked in the meramec.
68
a whole napkin
for a single
fly
69
You gotta do this,
you gotta do that —
we’re all lawyers
70
In the time
I’ve written this I’ve gotten
Two spam messages
61
When I closed my eyes
The sun went behind a cloud,
And it was Friday
62
I can remember
When I didn’t even know
What Lowe’s was
63
On a branch silhouetted
By my neighbor’s window,
A cardinal braces
64
In the midst
Of a roaring party,
An old coffee cup, broken
65
As I wonder
At a light bulb —
It bursts in my face
56
When I watered my jade
With Schlitz
Of course it died
57
To set the clock
I look to see what time it is
While holding the missing clock
58
It’s been weeks
But finally I hear it —
The rain
59
Stuck but not
Dead in winter
Plotting Spring
60
If someone came and
Hacked to death whatever —
Quiet home
51
What’d I write last night?
The morning is coffee
And looking through notebooks
52
Twenty-eight and still too scared
To say thrice into the mirror,
“Bloody Mary?”
53
Moon at an acme
That no company could match —
Din of merger news
54
Kerouac’s best haiku
Were the ones that went
Uncollected
55
A retreat
Into alcoholism, no
Not me
1
The morning fit with fog —
Morro's stacks and stone
just barely visible
2
Tide goes in and out —
never the same,
always the same
3
Standing on rocks
waiting for the tide
to go down
4
Sketching the ocean,
my fingers wet
with charcoal
5
Felled by beer,
I pass out while it's still light
in California
46
Royal Success Systems —
Convincing people
That their graffiti is art
47
Dog ears appear
From the heart of a sleeping ball —
Truck w/ trailer passes by
48
Drove out to the
Country for some air —
Coming back, the city ahaze
49 (after Kerouac)
In the Belleville house,
My father’s
Abominable yawns
50
Is my head back this far?
I was just now having
The night’s first beer
41
My favorite poets
Had their own problems—
How reassuring
42
This is just an act
Me sitting here stoned and drunk
In the chair
43
Hey, aren’t the zinnias
Pretty?
Let’s have another drink
44
As I watch The War,
I decide to skip dinner—
The battle of my bulge
45
Bare nail in wall
Where my painting hung—
Now I see the sun
36
Hark! The dog makes the sound
Of someone interested
In my poetry
37
Getting drunk
To the story of Enron—
Alcohol flows like gas.
38
Untamed land
Just waiting to be explored—
From the five hundreds…
39
Swimming the halls of fortune,
Beset by the winnings
Of the greatest generation
40
Macadamia nut
Dusted with imperial
Gunpowder
31
Flushed Rhine has risen
To welcome our arrival
In the wine-land
32
Skyline sky,
Skybleached sky.
How many times I will describe it
33
Coin empire,
You’re running out of coins—
Guess how I paid for you
34
Sky more blue
Or clouds more white?
What haiku at this height?
35
Heels on a cobblestone street.
Oh, I can’t help
But looking
26
Out in a field,
Weaving a wreath
Of cornflowers
27
Head hurts, sounds
Of the faucet upstairs—I don’t
Want to write any poetry
28
Reading on summer porch
Surrounded by oak and maple.
Beyond, useless world
29
Squirrels the lorax
To my bygone yellow patch
Of sunflowers
30
Alas! A sound the dog and I
Both thought could be her car
Was only a weedeater
The Writing of John B. Randall 