De Niro Travis Taxi Driver
stands
before a fulllength mirror You . . youah
. you talkin’ to me?
he isnt talking to himselfhis
reflection
looking over his reflected right shoulder
hes talking to me
You we made eyecontact you talkin’ to me?
No
Im not even in the room
my reflection evaporatessteams away Travis
turns to particlesmotes vanishes without
a trace
in my head sticks and stones I shake my head it sounds like a childs rattle
I hadnt said sticks and stonesNo
I said to no onenot myself
I didnt
say I dreamed it thin stick
thin stick branches
it came on like that the beginning
of a phrase written in a neat handlegible on the back of my eyelids white chalk black board
thin stick branches brittle
capillaries help respiring loaves of leaflungs
photosynthesis
carbon dioxide water
suns energy become sugar
in return exhales oxygen
does
not participate in zero-sum relationships
thin stick branches brittle
capillaries help respiring loaves of leaflungs
nicely printed
over and over again like a child at
school being punished for something Write it on the board fifty times
how many times did he stay afterschool
writing something on the board fifty timeshe was incorrigible a hunredtimes
once she was marriedMrs Keever maybe her husband was away on a business
trip twohunredfifty times accurate punctuation spelling
he snuck in errors
she caught them
he had no idea how many times he
wrote the sentence one
would think hed remember it he didnt get home until after darkmissed dinner
his father asked wryly How was school today, son? he was being rhetorical
You missed a tasty dinner. The dishes are waiting for you.
he washed dried put everything away then went upstairs to his bedroom
sat at his desk and did his homework
the printing ceased the lines were virtually exact same size letterspacing end on end line after line
after line
he was impressed
it wasnt his handwriting
he
woke
wrote it down so he wouldnt forget
b4 7AMish, Monday,
1 5. 23
1023,
Twosday, 2 5. 23