Subject 20

swimming across
the bridge
wobbly on the drowsy bicycle on the
way to see my clone a myoclonic
jerk
if ever I knew
oh brother oh bother oh
pooh and piglet a girl in pigtails without any eyes it’s
my cousin Y yes I met her
once when she was eleven with
an elven look her pointy ears I knew she
looked familial her father
that time gave me pictures of
my folks who were gone in
front of a Volkswagen minibus
with Mickey Mouse ears but
I tell him I have parents they’re just
over there you see you don’t know what you’re and
left without a look here the
policeman says when he stops the
bike with his
middle finger
a wild woman on the
Walt Whitman Bridge let me see your
poetic license I sense that he’s
looking funny at my photo as
I fight to stand straight so I flip
my long hair away from wait a minute what’s
this here I don’t have Miss
Vera Xi the S.S. man is saying so a
Chinese comrade are we and no I
try to say but instead I’m singing
“Respect” with the voice of
Aretha I thought I was on the Ben
Franklin not the Walt
and the Cossack is struck by lightning and falls over
the side into the Nile and I pedal my where’s the
end of this cables snapping three Xs at the bottom while
I and I are safe and well in cribs at
home free with an extra side of
Edmund Bacon marking off the
streets that lead to my

[1:00 / dreaming / free verse / hair / Vera Xi / Ben Franklin Bridge]