Anselm Berrigan
DIP JAR
having spent a little too much
time being observed by pigeons
for their undulations to strike
me as ambiguous - but then I'm
not sure when these things are
taking place - the cuz arriving
& a book of records on a list
beckons - I don't know what
that is - beckoning - I did
a lot of talking - while watching
or vice-versa - at the garden's
hospital-adjacent pit for creatives
don't be going to the height line -
so crowded no one goes - but with
their portraits - being towed -time
to fake smoke half a spirit -went
to both topos today: the one re-
commended by the human torch
the one meant to seal my housing fate -
a real poet knows - to not do enough
CLOSEOUT HEAVEN
These humans who love to not know -
we put them in charge - we put the
least interested humans in charge -
the unkind - the unimaginative
the unintelligent - they are not
lost - they are not disillusioned
they are barely - at this point - pitiable
and we put them in charge - repeatedly
TOTE IT ON OVER
I throw the book to make a skyway
why antagonize strangers?
IOU nothing & an omelette
made of kimchi fried rice
from the special place - which has
at least two other names - I hate
it here - in ridge-wood - I think
my arm-blood is going solid - will
splay it off - the hospital & the sturgeon
bill separately - that's a form of intimacy
people will worry - the cost of a defunct
public scene - I can believe Mom didn't
leave a will - she always wanted me &
Eddie to work bilingually - with French
& New York Lawyers - what's life
without constraints - an airplane
crossword without clues - put F
everywhere - now tell everyone
on the caterpillar ride called the M
you wrote this without stopping -
FOR CRYING OUT LOUD
trailing traces of backpack b.o. -
there will be no notaire - anywhere
apparent - constructed out of bunnies -
the half-whispering an object shares
with its step-objects - en route to earn
a degree that leads - to a career you love
but you ain't allowed to see me seeing
you stare at the system - having hours
& a lightning bolt don't turn - you
into Captain Marvel Jr. alas - god -
we love you - or - we love you - god
after the bombs are launched - sisters
aside - I see time as it was - does
the boat come - with the bar?
I don't want no fucking beads - I've
always been passionate about no
fees - aerospace - please stand - had I -
or we - stayed - longer - maybe
the fall would've been prevented -
but we were in this routine - the hospital
visiting hours a chosen given - a given
chosen? you show up until someone
falls over - then you keep showing -
up - to mind the bill - for the body
Anselm Berrigan's most recent book of poetry is Don't Forget to Love Me (Wave Books, 2024). Other books include: Pregrets, (Black Square Editions, 2021), Something for Everybody, (Wave, 2018), Come In Alone (Wave , 2016), Primitive State (Edge, 2015), Notes from Irrelevance (Wave Books, 2011), Free Cell (City Lights, 2009), Some Notes on My Programming (Edge, 2006), Zero Star Hotel (Edge, 2002) and Integrity and Dramatic Life (Edge, 1999). Berrigan is also responsible for ten chapbooks, most recently Broken Filter (Sputnik & Fizzle, 2024), & three collaborative books: Loaded (with painter Jonathan Allen), Skazers (with John Coletti), and In the Dream Hole (with Edmund Berrigan).