DAWN OVER THE KITCHEN TABLE
 

The phone bill reflected in the toaster
Too many pencils on the table, only one writing hand
A puddle of coffee in a spoon, one ashtray
Henry Miller on Writing
Nadja by Andre Breton
Blackburn’s Early Selected y Mas
    Three dead men
Pictures from Brueghel by Dr. Williams
    Four dead men
Essays Before a Sonata by Charles Ives
    Five dead men
Eighteen collected sagas of Doctor Strange
   " Master of the Mystic Arts"
        doesn’t even exist
    Who can save us now?
All that awful noise outside, people earning money
    this early in the morning, it sucks
Jack Kerouac’s Tristessa
    about a “morphine-wracked prostitute”
    greasy, haunted tart on a lurid 1960 cover
    wearing only a blue shirt, probably Jack’s
    lots of cleavage & a cigarette
    Six dead men
Headline: MATH WHIZ RULED INSANE IN KILLING OF BOSS
    Seven dead men
Thank God no one phones at this hour
This gourd will never be a rattle, it’s rotting