I. The Burial of the Dead
Bin gar keine Russin stauen aus Litauen, echt Deutsch Der Heimat zu, meine Irisch Kind You hypocrit lecteur! — mon semblable, — mon frere! You get off the ramp at Exit 70 passing the Cumberland Farms and Wendy’s on Route 111 Manorville where Rex Heuermann buried his Gilgo Beach dead, past McDonald’s, the strip mall with its King Kullen opposite the shuttered Michelangelo and the 7-Eleven. You’re driving, slight drizzle. You turn on the windshield wipers and defroster as you bear left and sharply left, a pair of headlights tailgating and onto 27, Bridgehampton 8 sign.
II. A Game of Chess
Should I move my pawn one or two spaces and what next? “Move your knight.” Castlevania!
‘What shall I do now? What shall I do?’
‘I shall rush out as I am, and walk the street
‘With my hair down, so. What shall we do tomorrow?
‘What shall we ever do?’
There are those who like to play cards and those who get bored with winning or losing. Who cares what your opponent thinks?
III. The Fire Sermon
Old man with wrinkled female breasts
Sweet Thames sung my song
Tiresias goddammit
You are never there when we need you
Gone is the operant word
You can recycle cans
Not history
Goner
You’re a goner
made a firm commitment never to enter any sports stadium again or
attend any event
Are you really going to New Jersey to see the Stones in some afterlife
in which your vertigo
leaves you staggering for eternity
What was his name, Larry?
Who walked around the Lincoln Center area in
riding pants and boots.
Have sympathy for the devil
I remember when Jesus
Andrea Doria sinking STOP
special prosecutor STOP
real estate interests STOP
A famous composer who wrote
criticism for TNYRB,
Ned Roar em?
I need a four-letter word that’s a five-letter word,
no expletives.
Lonnie will be back with a full five-day forecast
I hope you live
IV. Death by Water
And the profit and loss.
The children and the adults
drown their grief
in torrents of words.
Their suffering has passed.
There are many things you can do nothing about.
Sadie didn’t stop talking
which is why you didn’t invite her.
V. What the Thunder Said
Who is the third who walks always beside you?
Pat Sajak won out, Wheel of Fortune.
You came before the unfavored son.
The poet.
You threw away your talent and starred in porn.
You were defensive about it and made the egalitarian argument
no one thing is better than the other
though the world would have prized you for
playing Jamie Tyrone.
‘Midnight Plowboy’ was not even covered in the trades still less daily
Variety old father
I heard she’d died yesterday.
I can send all the emails I like to her account but I shall never hear her
voice again.
Never never never . . .
The event horizon of this black hole is a precipice.
Kepler star 1200 light-years from earth.
Francis Levy is a Wainscott resident. The Italian translation of his novel “Erotomania” will be released in October. His novel “The Wormhole Society” will be released then too, along with a graphic novel version illustrated by Joseph Silver. His long poem “Francis Levy’s Divine Comedy” was published in Exquisite Corpse.