reading till i don’t fall asleep

I read James Claffey in the bathroom

and Ryder Collins, and Nabokav

not all of them on the toilet

I take long baths, you see

read Amy Hempel in the bath tub too

book is goddamn destroyed now

I read Bukowski, Love is a Dog

From Hell, while pissing

each piss, a poem, standing there

paperback in one hand

and you get the rest

and I read Len Kuntz that way

too. Pablo Neurda: also a pisser.

I read Seidlinger at work

sitting on top of a tower that boils

oil into gasoline, fire shooting

into the black starless sky

and inside a big metal drum

I read Heather Dorn, I was supposed

to be chipping concrete with a

pneumatic gun, but I wasn’t

I was reading and pretending

so be it, they had a night shift on the way

When I crashed my car, I was reading

Raymond Carver, the cop asked

“is it at least a good book?”

“sad book”

“goes well with this ticket then”

I was reading Meg Tuite on a narrow airplane

when the war zone turbulence started

the lights flashed out

and in the dark cabin

the family in front of me

started singing holy death bible hymns

we survived, the book ended good too

was reading Dustin Holland at

the doctor’s office when they couldn’t

figure out what was wrong with me

for the second and third time

fourth time I was reading Gay Degani

now I’m onto Robert Vaughan

they still don’t know what is wrong

with me

was reading merce rodoreda

time of the doves in the park

by my apartment when I was

on unemployment

have read Fante and Misti Rainwater

on state checks too, not to

mention Kevin Ridgeway

Denis Johnson and Frank Reardon

I like being unemployed and

being state subsidized to read

those books in that park

by my apartment

more of that please

read Kyle Muntz at the beach

got sunburn everywhere

except between my toes

and my nut sack

read Ben Loory to my friend’s

kid who couldn’t sleep

read Mik Everette on the subway

and missed my stop

two times, but that’s the good life

read seven of Aaron Dietz’s books

in a yellow chair next to my radiator

the radiator was chanting and

popping and making a fucking racket

occasionally I’d yell at it

“shut up shut up shut up!”

read In Watermelon Sugar again

last night, did that one again

in the bath tub again

I’m always doing that

In Watermelon Sugar and

the motherfucking bath tub

Richard Brautigan probably

had a good one

he brought into the bath tub too

one can only hope

and order more books, drunk.