Milkweed Smithereens Quotes

“there’s two tiny potatoes on my desk.”
― Bernadette Mayer, Milkweed Smithereens

“i have been waiting so long for you to pay me, i wonder if it’s just that i am so unpayable because i am a female. there’s been a lot of talk about this lately, people even losing their jobs because they haven’t paid females, I wonder … forced poverty? is it the same as sex? saw a real butterfly today, not just the white ones. there will be so many lilacs, it looks like.”
― Bernadette Mayer, Milkweed Smithereens

“passepartout,”
― Bernadette Mayer, Milkweed Smithereens

“clafouti,”
― Bernadette Mayer, Milkweed Smithereens

“once upon a time, every vowel was an ‘e,’ so there! thes wes et the begenneng of teme & nebedy noticed et yet. en fect et wes fen. when peeple ferfet te heve fen they mede these ether vewels, so whet the feck? e dent de et. we ceedl’ve getten by weth jest ‘e’s ceedn’t we? The roblem wes the ‘e’s were blut net green, i felt. er were they green net blee? whech wes et? well we ever knew? who ceres? e’m cenfesed by the blee leghts. they weren’t lettle. theegh. & E wes green. e dednt de et. bet whe ded et? whe mede the letters celers fer ell the synesthetes en the werld? we blend eer senses tegether en eer bebyheed & seme remeens, semtemes ets celers letteres, semetimes shepes & seends, ether temes ether steff. ef yee hed e gerl, yee’d meke the nersery penk. maybe. e dent knew. E es green, net blee. thes es my fenel enswer. ferever green er blee. which es et? cen yee tell? ef e tern the blee leghts en, well e see the blee leghts en elways? e’m sere semebedy’s dene thes beferes”
― Bernadette Mayer, Milkweed Smithereens

“i read “the story of english” & the word “gullah” puts me in a fugue state.”
― Bernadette Mayer, Milkweed Smithereens

“there’s water in the birdbath & the birds are thirsty, the birds are being feisty, who else is feisty & thirsty? me? maybe.”
― Bernadette Mayer, Milkweed Smithereens

“I write my poems with my hands on my breasts smelling the redolent smells of all the lilacs I can get for whatever occasion of appropriate love”
― Bernadette Mayer, Milkweed Smithereens

“Romance was once a luxury, now it’s hard To abjure this winter, even harder To be so solemn about the weather I think I’ll forget my dream And also all my promises and images There are some things you can only put One way, others a different way each time, It doesn’t matter, I’ll wait around out of habit Considering this a luxury and that a hard stone Loving you as if I were walking sensationally Down the stairs looking fast or else Running up a bill still smiling at the store Without a thought to the consequent past.”
― Bernadette Mayer, Milkweed Smithereens

“i wrapped the green tomatoes in newspaper, rolled up the lovage in wet paper towels, mailed peggy’s postcard, didn’t see the bear, emptied the sink, read rebecca solnit,”
― Bernadette Mayer, Milkweed Smithereens