Another Life 6
“Then there was another Fetish
who lived in the old Lido Hotel.
He had a scar from the side of his mouth
to the tip of his ear, with chains in his room.”
“Ain’t that always the way, ” said Candy.
“What’s that mean? ” I asked
Not responding, either one, Frances continued,
“I was young and didn’t know
he was a Fetish
till I gave him the blow job.
At the time I slept in an empty building
but didn’t like that, so when be said
he’d take me to the Lido Hotel
I expected something wonderful
but the Fetish smell only made nightmares.
He drew everything out of me
with his strange laugh
like a fake Coney Island clown.”
Candy said, “Bernstein, bring over the food.”
I spread it on the bed.
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poem by Charles Chaim Wax
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When I walked into Peter F's office
he was printing photographs
of his son’s girlfriend
gorgeous woman
“Bernstein, ” he said, somewhat sadly,
“time flies.”
”What else is new.”
“My son’s in college
costing me a fortune
fourteen grand a year
but that’s not the worst of it
he’s in love…”
“What a blessing! ” I said, then
shook his hand
“Really in love…”
Once more I pumped flesh saying,
“What a blessing! ”
“Helen, the girl’s name,
wants children
right away
an orphan
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Two Unpublished Authors
We stood at the end of the Pier
peering at the vast Atlantic
dawn still two hours away.
I said to Tunstill, “I can’t find Candy
everyday I see the same girls
on the stroll
but I never see her
and nobody knows a thing.
She never comes out anymore.”
Tunstill said, “You saved her
from a life of prostitution, Bernstein.”
“What do you mean by ‘saved’? ”
“Well, you have this long history of being
into these Ultimate things
Religious stuff
and you spent over a grand
on Candy so all that time
with her had to have an effect.”
“Perhaps. Who knows about
these subtle
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O Brave and Faithful Dream
The day began
with the temperature
plummeting
closing in on zero
wondered if I should wear
a coat
decided to put one on
not wanting
to be a show off
told everyone at Spinoza high school
my mother bore me
on the steppes of Siberia
wasn’t true
but felt
it should have been true
I loved the cold so much
well,
we all had our little
dream.
Later that day
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Two Unpublished Authors Await Publication
Julia Doyle arrived at Spinoza HS
with visions of creating a real Community
and to that end she announced
all submissions from the faculty
would be published in the school’s
literary magazine.
One day in the Teacher’s Center
Minna Cohen asked Julia,
“When’s the magazine coming out? ”
“Soon...but I didn’t understand a word.”
I immediately said, “Julia, you promised us
we’d get published.”
“I thought Minna would do a love story.”
“Not much love the last decade, ” she said
“Imagination, Minna. You’ve got that…
at least I hope so…
no writer can function without it.”
Minna muttered, “You said I’d make it
no matter what, just no dirty words
that’s what you said.
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Not Yet Dust and Ashes
I’m sitting at the table
in the living room
with my sister, her daughter and husband
and her friend Sarah
everyone gathered for a
Rosh Hashanah dinner
Even though the holiday
falls late this year,
October 3rd and 4th,
the weather is still hot
and we talk about
the brutal summer
perhaps a hint of what is to come
and how if the Polar caps melt
all of Florida will be underwater
which includes my sister’s son
who just bought a house there.
The doorbell rings
My sister gets up to answer.
Sarah says, “Well, Steve,
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Glorious Memories
Sitting in Moe Fine’s
Ice Cream Emporium
on Flatbush Avenue
after Hannah McGill’s funeral
I said, “So many teachers passed away
the last nineteen years...not the same.”
“Remember Vinnie Weed? ” asked Henry F
“Funny guy
hadn’t thought of him in awhile.”
“Never forget, never
all the years
he wore that cheap mat on his head
and nobody said a word
everyone knew
not a word.”
“Mabel Figgnat, ” I sighed.
“Lord, yes
recall when she almost
crushed me to a pancake
after she slipped on the applesauce
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Outside snow dazzled the air
each joyous dream bit twirling out from infinity
as I sat in Meng’s with the crew
watching the soothing streets without desire.
Suddenly I heard the exuberant sound of a kazoo
going at full blast, Yankee Doodle Dandy the tune,
or something close to it
and that could only mean one person, Henry Kosminski,
known to all the world as The Original Mr. Universe
here to earn a few dollars,
as he often did since his retirement from the circus.
Well, at the age of 92 I suppose he couldn’t do
what he did as a young fellow.
Besides seventy years at the same job was enough for any man.
Ginger, Sugar, and Susan Honey Baker
gawked at Kosminski’s still formidable physique
his body still retaining remnants of glory.
Now silence as Henry bent straight down,
lifted a chair by the bottom of one leg
straight into the air, then gently placed
the tip of the leg on his nose, removed his hand,
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When I landed in Coney Island
I was in luck because Candy sat alone
in Kansas Fried Chicken.
She possessed the soul of a poet
and the body of a sex goddess,
but things had not gone well for her,
I was sure of it,
even though she never spoke
about the details of her life.
“How do you feel? ” I asked.
“Snowing, ” she said,
“just your kind of weather.”
“Yeah.”
“Where’d you get this liking for the cold? ”
“I told you I was born in Siberia.”
“Last time you said Outer Mongolia.”
“They’re close.”
Just then Irving trudged in.
I nodded to him
and he sat at our table.
“I got to have an operation on my leg, ” he said.
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poem by Charles Chaim Wax
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