Stigmata
The man downstairs warns us about the bedbugs
in his apartment & the next day I have big bumps
on my arms
There are bugs in the soup among other places
It’s no coincidence that Gregor Samsa turned into a bug
Joy and sadness are like sweet & bitter food
The places you visited don’t exist when you’re not there
The world is a forest filled with wild beasts & poisonous insects
The anesthesia is just wearing off & a nurse is sitting at my
bedside
Maybe when I’m old & blind you can read to me before
I fall asleep
You were sleeping here a moment ago & now you’re gone
This is what used to be known as the meatpacking district
It’s not a problem (for me) if you want to burn everything you’ve
written
I put some cortisone on my bites to relieve the itching
The hair stylist on the ground floor claims that the birds
on the windowsill attract rats
I had the sense that someone was following me
so I turned the corner
There’s a theory that only the beginning & the end
are important
I skipped a few pages to find out what happens at the end
You may read a short summary of the book before you begin
I tried to throw the ball through the hoop, but it went astray
“The self-acknowledged suffering of the disintoxicated
is the subject of this book”
Every word is a verb: to do, to be, to seem
The words are in italics because I’m saying them
My so-called doppelganger is not my friend
It’s a long way down from the roof to the street
Waiting on line at the bank we are simply nobodies
I run out into the snow / but there’s nowhere to go
My head is no longer part of my body
When I first started wearing glasses, people called me “Owl”
When I walked down the street people shouted “Hoot! Hoot!”
One word from you & my thoughts begin spiraling
It’s hard to know what to do next until you’re doing it
My private parts are glowing in the dark
There was a buzz in the audience at the sound of her name,
but after her performance people looked downcast & filled
with despair, as if the propensity to feel anything
had vanished forever in her presence
It feels like there’s a nail sticking into the bottom of my foot
Darkness commensurate with discomfort–this style of writing
Self-discipline is necessary if you want to forget something
There’s a struggle, never ending, between clinging to something
& letting go
A stream of water flowed out of my head
You can walk down Gun Hill Road in the Bronx & be anywhere
You can stand at the intersection of Gun Hill Road & Eastchester
Road & remember the past
I can see the light of a taxi in the distance, coming through
the snow to take me home
You can walk down Lydig Avenue in the Bronx & remember
your childhood
I cursed at the doctor who wanted to give me a shot
In those days, when you were sick, the doctors visited you
in your apartment
There’s the intersection where I waited for a bus — it’s after midnight
Once I took speech lessons to correct my lisp
It’s time to leave the party but I can’t find my coat
I omitted the sentence you asked me to erase without fear of rain
Long shot of an empty downtown street — coffin-like, unreadable
“We’re walking on sunshine — ooh, ooh”
Side effects might include drowsiness or diarrhea
It’s important to clean the sink before going to sleep
Sometimes the bugs come out when you’re sleeping
The sky is overwhelming but so is the vastness of the sea
We buy a magnifying glass so we can identify the bodies
of the dead bugs
The dead bugs leave a trail of blood along the sheets
It’s hard to touch someone who isn’t here
The dermatologist touches the welts on my skin
The ferry is late & we won’t be home