#22
crazy
to be alive in such a strange
world
with the band playing schmaltz
in the classic bandshell
and the people
on the benches under the clipped trees
and girls
on the grass
and the breeze blowing and the
streamers
streaming
and a fat man with a graflex
and a dark woman with a dark dog she called
Lucia
and a cat on a leash
and a pekinese with a blond baby
and a cuban in a fedora
and a bunch of boys posing for a group
picture
and just then
while the band went right on playing
schmaltz
a midget ran past shouting and waving his hat
at someone
and a young man with a gay campaign button
came up and said
Are you by any chance a registered
DEMOCRAT?
— Lawrence Ferlinghetti
from Pictures of a Gone World, City Lights Books, 1995
Uni-verse
Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?
~ Barbara Bush, March 18, 2003 on ABC's Good Morning America
