Poem

Podcast

for Sharon Thesen

eyes-free

to be seen elsewhere

the trouble with our industry--

they said          as I chop up an onion 

later: I don’t like it, would you?

I consider the question, the language

so formal -- our industry?

nothing on practice, the vagaries of time

we don’t have the luxuries of an Ashbery

they said          adding tomatoes to that onion

those who wrote on the job, dreaming

of Guadalajara 

who is this “they” 

who speaks for a “we”?

or O’Hara, who spent his lunch hours

typing up poems in stationary stores

spending? is that what he was doing?

everything -- all of us -- speaking in market terms!

Ashbery’s debt to that instruction manual

was it paid for its role in the poem?

“so much depends upon” 

“the uses of a new metal”

Williams composing lines

between patient visits

making them wait 

for him to finish          

we are saying no to free labour!

they said          as I stir into the bowl

         cilantro, oil and vinegar