Farewell, Foolish Objects I have lain in bed all day but I have written one poem and I am up now looking out the window and like a novelist might say drunk: the clouds are coming at me like scullery maids with dishpans in their hands— something that holds gritty dirty water. but I am a drunken non—novelist but in clear condition now here sits the bottle of beer and I am warmly thinking in a kind of foam—shaped idle fancy working closely but all I can stoke up are squares and circles which do not fit; so messeigneurs I will tell you the truth: again (in bed) I read another article on D. Thomas & some day I will get lucky and sit around and own a French horn and a tame eagle and I will sit on the porch all day a white porch always in the sun one of those white porches with green vines all around, and I will read about Dylan and D.H. until my eyes fall out of my head for eagle meat and I will play the French horn blind. but even now it gets darker the evening thing into night the bones down here the stars up there somebody rattling the springs in Denver so another pewker can be born. I think everything is a sheet of sun and the best of everything is myself walking through it wondering about the pure nerve of the life—thing going on: after the jails the hospitals the factories the good dogs the brainless butterflies. but now I am back at the window there is an opera on the radio and a woman sits in a chair to my left saying over and over again: BRATCH BRATSHT BRAATCHT! and she is holding a book in her hand: How to Learn Russian Easily. but there is really nothing you can do easily: live or die or accept fame or money or defeat, it’s all hard. the opera says this, the dead birds the dead countries the dead loves the man shot because somebody thought it was an elk the elk shot because somebody thought it was an elk. all the pure nerve of going on this woman wanting to speak Russian myself wanting to get drunk but we need something to eat. GRIND CAT GRIND MEAT says the woman in Russian so I figure she’s hungry, we haven’t eaten in a couple of hours. CLAM BAYONET TURKEY PORK AND PORK she says, and I walk over and put on my pants and I am going out to get something. the forests are far away and I am no good with the bow and arrow and somebody signs on the radio: ”farewell, foolish objects.” and all I can do is walk into a grocery store and pull out a wallet and hope that it’s loaded. and this is about how I waste my Sundays. the rest of the week gets better because there is somebody telling me what to do and although it seems madness almost everybody is doing it whatever it is. so now if you will excuse me (she is eating an orange now) I will put on my shoes and shirt and get out of here—it’ll be better for all of us.