Richard Brautigan
Loading Mercury with a Pitchfork
POSTCARD
I wonder if eighty-four-year-old Colonel Sanders
ever gets tired of traveling all around America
talking about fried chicken.
LOADING MERCURY WITH A PITCHFORK
Loading mercury with a pitchfork
your truck is almost full. The neighbors
take a certain pride in you. They
stand around watching.
IT’S TIME TO TRAIN YOURSELF
It’s time to train yourself
to sleep alone again
and it’s so fucking hard.
THE ACT OF:
DEATH-DEFYING AFFECTION
The act of: death-defying affection
insures the constancy of the stars
and their place at the beginning of
everything.
CROW MAIDEN
Starring a beautiful young girl and twenty-
three crows. She has blonde hair. The crows are
intelligent. The director is obsessed with the
budget (too low). The photographer has fallen
in love with the girl. She can’t stand him. The
crows are patient. The director is a homosexual.
The girl loves him. The photographer
daydreams murder. “One hundred and seventy-
five thousand. I was a fool!” the director says
to himself. The girl has taken to crying a lot at
night. The crows wait for their big scene.
And you will go where crows go
and you will know what the crows know.
After you have learned all their secrets
and think the way they do and your love
caresses their feathers like the walls
of a midnight clock, they will fly away
and take you with them.
And you will go where crows go
and you will know what the crows know.
INFORMATION
Any thought that I have right now
isn’t worth a shit because I’m totally
fucked up.
WE MEET. WE TRY. NOTHING HAPPENS, BUT
We meet. We try. Nothing happens, but
afterwards we are always embarrassed
when we see each other. We look away.
IMPASSE
I talked a good hello
but she talked an even
better good-bye.
THE NECESSITY OF APPEARING
IN YOUR OWN FACE
There are days when that is the last place
in the world where you want to be but you
have to be there, like a movie, because it
features you.
FOR FEAR YOU WILL BE ALONE
For fear you will be alone
you do so many things
that aren’t you at all
EVERYTHING INCLUDES US
The thought of her hands
touching his hair
makes me want to vomit.
I’LL AFFECT YOU SLOWLY
I’ll affect you slowly
as if you were having
a picnic in a dream.
There will be no ants.
It won’t rain.
AT THE GUESS OF A SIMPLE HELLO
At the guess of a simple hello
it can all begin
toward crying yourself to sleep,
wondering where the fuck
she is.
SEXUAL ACCIDENT
The sexual accident
that turned out to be your wife,
the mother of your children
and the end of our life, is home
cooking dinner for all your friends.
FUCK ME LIKE FRIED POTATOES
Fuck me like fried potatoes
on the most beautifully hungry
morning of my God-damn life.
THE CURVE OF FORGOTTEN THINGS
Things slowly curve out of sight
Until they are gone. Afterwards
Only the curve
Remains.
THE SHADOW OF
SEVEN YEARS’ BAD LUCK
A face concocted from leftovers of other faces
needs a mirror put together from pieces of
broken mirrors.
DIVE-BOMBING THE LOWER EMOTIONS
I was dive-bombing the lower
emotions on a typical yesterday
after
I had sworn never to do it again.
I guess never’s too long a time to stay
out of the cockpit
with the wind screaming down the wings
and the target almost praying itself into your
sights.
August 30
EARLY SPRING MUD PUDDLE
AT AN OFF ANGLE
That’s how I
feel.
October 5
NOBODY KNOWS
WHAT THE Portfolio IS WORTH
Nobody knows what the Portfolio is worth
but it’s better than sitting on your hands,
I keep telling myself.