Poem 22: 'Select a dark night'

Select a dark night and
A single star
Sit in your backyard
Smoke cigarettes
Dream of oriental carpets,
Junk stores, mangy bears
w blood-covered lips.
Expect nothing from your life.
Wander an empty courtyard.
Wait in a deserted cafe.
Lie down, looking at nothing, in bed.
Hear your breath...  for what?
Stand alone, pacing.
Be among worlds, amid glimmers.
Find a black revolver
In a big empty ballroom.
Hide beneath a blanket
Eating an onion.

--David Stokes

Poem 21: American Wheels

I met David Berman in a dream last night.

He gave me a lift
and we went for a drink.

We had a good conversation and got along well.

He said he could only stay for one more drink. He had to leave early
because he had a show the next day.

Afterwards I tried to explain to everyone
that I talked to David Berman,
and we had become fast friends.
But everyone told me he was dead.

I could no longer remember whether we talked
before or after he was dead,
or anything else that he had said.
I think he drove a black Lincoln.

--Eli Fox