SO LONG IT'S BEEN
Fibonacci found the significance of
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 ...,
they explain
the way seeds spiral in the sun
flower and pine scales
twist in the cone
I tell youLYNDHURST 8325
means the house my aunt moved from in 1942
and I remember the cousins who said 20 years ago:
call us when you 're in town, the number 's
ILLINOIS 8-3713
but I forget their names
SO LONG IT'S BEEN
time to clear the silent
sullen round of numbers stacked in my
brainracks
clearHOWARD 0141 where the one
armed man lived next door and Mrs. Goldfarb
with her slipstraps slid on her fat pink arms
clear
HARGRAVE 8375 where the park sweeps below the railing
and Broadview Ave, on a foggy day a ship's
deck sailing a sea of limbo washed with
3 old skaters 7 tennis players and a shattered
rubbydub
GERRARD 6715 Good evening Century Theatre
Goodbye Mrs Gersten, Miss Fernandez, Miss Fleuhrer &
all burglars anonymous uncaught who tied up my
father & stole the safe, or his lunch, or sometimes
even $$$$
clearGERRARD 2222 (too) easy to remember Call
me anytime Mr Wallace walks me in the schoolyard &
knowing does not tell me my grandmother
LAKESIDE 0007
never liked flowers because they reminded her of
funerals: how many roses from hers have I found
cracking the backs of Uncle Nissel's
SCHUYLER 4-7767 old encylopedias?
clearGROVER 9595
where I pulled the kid cousin's braids, ate
knishes, and cried: yes, he 's dead, he died this
morning
numbers that lived in me clear clear clear no
answer, nobody lives
there any more
my ghost directories are
yellowpage clear through, the
crossroads of the past
are one-way thoroughfares
Fibonacci found the significance of
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 ...,
they explain
the way seeds spiral in the sun
flower and pine scales
twist in the cone
I tell you
means the house my aunt moved from in 1942
and I remember the cousins who said 20 years ago:
call us when you 're in town, the number 's
but I forget their names
SO LONG IT'S BEEN
time to clear the silent
sullen round of numbers stacked in my
brainracks
clear
armed man lived next door and Mrs. Goldfarb
with her slipstraps slid on her fat pink arms
clear
and Broadview Ave, on a foggy day a ship's
deck sailing a sea of limbo washed with
3 old skaters 7 tennis players and a shattered
rubbydub
Goodbye Mrs Gersten, Miss Fernandez, Miss Fleuhrer &
all burglars anonymous uncaught who tied up my
father & stole the safe, or his lunch, or sometimes
even $$$$
clear
me anytime Mr Wallace walks me in the schoolyard &
knowing does not tell me my grandmother
never liked flowers because they reminded her of
funerals: how many roses from hers have I found
cracking the backs of Uncle Nissel's
clear
where I pulled the kid cousin's braids, ate
knishes, and cried: yes, he 's dead, he died this
morning
numbers that lived in me clear clear clear no
answer, nobody lives
there any more
my ghost directories are
yellowpage clear through, the
crossroads of the past
are one-way thoroughfares