Saturday in the Park

For those who love the leafy moments in life

Dombühl 22 x 29,5 cm - 8,7 x 11.6''

 

YOU CAN’T DO THAT TO ME

says the man on a bench 

pretty much out of nowhere.

His voice is loud but sounds hog-tied.

The coppery beeches are joined

in their upper limbs leaf

to leaf and there are white chairs

on the hedged in lawns

where nearly naked sun bathers

are smoking hash and drinking beer;

what we need is an updated Renoir

to capture in drunken brush-strokes, in stoned

impasto, their pungent, carnal pleasures.

You can’t do that to me? What kind of statement is that?

Wittgenstein would have certainly

refused to consider its logic.

On the other hand, you might say,

Wittgenstein had his own problems,

couldn’t figure out if he wanted to be

a philosopher or a construction worker.

Still, the grass is thick and warm

and there’s an odor of barbecued meat

drifting past the lilacs and honeysuckle

and a sweat worm, yes, a worm comprised

of sweat, is crawling down my rib

cage and an otherwise anonymous girl 

is working with lascivious ingenuity

on a long cylindrical popsicle

like an old pro in the porn trade.

Life could be worse. Life could

be a snow storm on a train platform.

An assessment center at a Major Corporation.

You can’t do that to me? Tell that to the Marine Corps

drill instructor yelling in your ear.

Listen to that from the sucking

pig being barbecued right now by a soccer club 

already three sheets to the wind, working on their fourth.

You can’t do that to me, squeals the pig.

Watch me, says the soccer player.

One little piggy goes to the market,

and one perverse little piggy eats pork chops(alas, we know the type),

and one last little piggy 

will not run all the way home ever again.

 

Chicago - Saturday in the Park