AFTER A LINE BY TED BERRIGAN

I want Pepsi for breakfast

every day. Every time I look

out the window I want to see

Sheridan Square. The lights

have to be just right.

I want to look as good as

Carroll (Jim), and write as good as

Berrigan(Ted). I want to seem

gentle and wear leather clothes.

The things you might suppose

I want, I probably don't:

for instance, dope. I can be

totally carried away by a face

in the city, a line in a poem:

the moment at my parents' home,

for instance, when I saw that

phrase again and sat up, straight.

"I have been in bed," I said, "in

my lover's underwear long enough!

I want to be feminine, marvelous, and tough!"

tim dlugos