Michael Brownstein
THE NEW REGIME
Today is the first day
Of the new regime
I hope to lose
Hundreds of pounds
And fear to lose
My personal freedom
As I look out
Over the popping sky
The new regime
Creases toward me
Zeros in
And from between my eyes
A tender dream is born
A flashlight's beam
Of righteous wariness
A lotus bloom of searing love
POEM IN TWO PARTS
Pause before anything ordinary
and it becomes important
FINGERTIPS
Your translucent cousin appears underweight
And floats a little in the hand that is
If you cross between it it glows
Mistaking the children for a walk
In far wood still no noise
Pooped Mayans breaking for a silent loaf
Meal collapses, resting a bit behind in the hill
You descend to tell friends to "Park cars!"
For cold luncheon on the scarf
And park their cars until the lawn
And rub antler parked Mars
Friendly, although a single leaf
Grows from the thought and the way it grows
Someone on the lake hears the motor relax
And someone on the beach relaxes
Like a crowd of children who suppose
And then the old folk
Song, at the tip of your tongue:
"A dusky knee lines the pungent trees
Above and below the puffing crane
Aunt Lime deposits in her garden plans"
Wiping the grip from her shoulder
She rests, budging in the breeze
Over the warm population
Blue rustics in a sunny fog
Wobble a net of perfect summer
In fact, it is the sole net
A poet and novelist, Michael Brownstein was born in Philadelphia on August 25, 1943. In 1965, he moved to New York City and became involved with the community of poets at St. Mark’s Poetry Project. He died unexpectedly in a car accident in upstate New York on September 18, 2024. He wrote numerous poetry collections, including Behind the Wheel (1967); Highway to the Sky (Frank O’Hara Poetry Award 1969); 3 American Tantrums (1970); Strange Days Ahead (1975); and Oracle Night: A Love Poem (1982). His novels include Country Cousins (1974), The Touch (1987), and Self-Reliance (1994). He taught at Naropa, the University of Colorado and Columbia University.
“The New Regime,” “Poem in Two Parts” and “Fingertips” are reprinted from Highway to the Sky with Ruth Brownstein’s permission.
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