John Berryman: Dream Song 4

John Berryman

(1914-1972)

Dream Song 4

 

Filling her compact & delicious body

with chicken paprika, she glanced at me

twice.

Fainting with interest, I hungered back

and only the fact that her husband & four other people

kept me from springing on her

 

or falling at her little feet and crying

“You are the hottest one for years of night

Henry’s dazed eyes

have enjoyed, Brilliance.” I advanced upon

(despairing) my spumoni. — Sir Bones: is stuffed,

de world, wif feeding girls. —

Black hair, complexion Latin, jewelled eyes

downcast . . . The slob beside her feasts . . . What wonders is

she sitting on, over there?

The restaurant buzzes. She might as well be on Mars.

Where did it all go wrong? There ought to be a law against Henry.

–Mr. Bones: there is.

 

John Berryman poetry

kempis.nl poetry magazine

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