Common Sense. Ted Greenwald

is

      nothing even the glowing

      nerve-ends of buildings

      are nothing to the vertical

      pleasure harvested from

      the horizontal don’t

      get me wrong my feet

      are still very much on

      the ground my feet are

      grounded in sacred principles

      that carry me to sharpen

      my wits on the whetstone

      of today’s air suddenly

      we’ve passed all that

      on a train of thought with

      a hook in it to reach out

      and grasp the male principle

      in the station just passed

      this allows us to nap in

      comfort for awhile, letting,

      like efficiently circulating

      blood, the breeze gently

      blow around the toe

      managing to move me a foot

      from where I started

      but, enough about me

      how about you

      THE/SKELETON

      the

      skeleton

      of

      the

      gestures

      were

      glowing

      PORE SUSPENSION

      I’m having a hard time making ends meet

      So what, my suit is tan, that is the style

      What with the grocery bills being

      What they are. Do you have the same trouble

      Now. And you know damn well that that is the way

      Adding 2 and 2 and getting uneasy,

      Strange numbers you never thought existed before?

      I like it: when the style changes so does my tie;

      It is not really the strangeness you are

      Talking about. It might be the coloring,

      You can hear me huffing (puff) (puff)

      But never the strangeness. That is beastly.

      Or, at least hot. The numbers creeping up

      Going down the street away from your door

      Behind you in your head, as you sit smoking

      The ash growing longer with the hours.

      After you have had the last word in the conver-

      It is the longest cigaret

      You ever smoked.

      Sensationally, speaking of our love, it is on the fritz,

      Part of the new german-french lover from ‟New Vague”

      Invading the number system

      PRIVETS COME INTO SEASON AT HIGH TIDE

      Privets come into season at high tide.

      The night on the Great Neck side

      near Steppingstone the bargeman walks