do you know

the problem with

my tea parties?

***

Too many stuffed animals invited.

***

do you know

the problem with

my birthday parties?

***

Just the opposite.

Good news!

I’m writing a book!

So far, I have about

a thousand pages.

But now, the hard part,

I need to start filling

those pages in with words.

My earliest

pre-natal

memory is of

Mr. Drysdale

Though Mae West

was from New York,

you’d have to travel

clear to Mid-West

if you were looking

for her belly-button.

“No, I am Spartacus!”

I would have said,

in a whispery voice

---

2.

“Come up and see me sometime”

Mae West said,

before floating up

to the ceiling.

Real beauty comes

from with-in, as it

slowly eats away at

your insides. Until it

finally escapes and

attacks your family.

.

---

2.

“Zizzy in the Breeze”

by Robert Trefcer

 

A guy out front

of the cinema

asked me if I would

like to see

a world premiere,

and then he

tried to sell me

a telescope.

In the entirety

of my life

I have never met

anybody named

Popeye. Except

for my brother,

the sailor-man.

.