Backbone > Quarter to Three
Anti-Me
Musings by Sparrow

Ada,
Today in the bus station, a drunken guy was waiting for the bus. Suddenly he began speaking to a West Indian woman, who was eating a hero sandwich.
"You know what I want?"
he asked her.
She ignored him, naturally, and he repeated his question three times. Finally, he announced what he wanted.
"I would like some of
your food!"
She looked away from
him, continued eating.
"I'll tell you what happened to me," he suddenly revealed to the room. "I crashed! I was in an accident. I crashed! I crashed hard! I'll tell you, I crashed!"
He pounded one hand with the other fist.
Then he sat near me.
But the way he had smashed his fist into his hand, when he said, "I crashed!" scared me. And the alcohol I smelled. I thought he might crash into me soon.
So I made no sound; I read the book I had found in the bus station: Light My Fire, the autobiography of Ray Manzarek, organist for The Doors. I read
the book, unspeaking.
Love,
Sparrow

Previous
Previous to this poem,
you read another poem.
Remember that poem.

The Return of Palindrome Man
Palindrome Man, you may recollect, is a superhero who solves all troubles with palin-dromes. (And a palindrome, of course, is a word, slogan, or gou-lash recipe that reads the same backwards and forwards.)
The rock critic Sidney Snare asked Palindrome Man, "How would Eminem introduce himself if he attended a men's consciousness-raising week-end?"
"'Men, I'm Eminem,'"
Palindrome Man responded.

Anti-Me
I am anti-me.

Emmy,
I am in the bus to New York City (presently paused in Woodstock); the woman across the aisle plays loudly a headphone music (R+B?)-the drums, which I hear, resemble Napoleonic military music.
In Corona, Queens:
A black shoe lies on the sidewalk,
at the foot of a brick stairway (407 Junction Boulevard).
Sign at Engine Company 289 (fire station):
GOD BLESS AMERICA
AND GOD BLESS YOU!
(The first time I've seen this phrasing.)
And at the BMW Halal Meat and Grocery Co. (a drafty warehouse) speckled gray chickens chirp, 12 to a cage.
Love,
Sparrow

New Shirt Soup
Buy a new shirt of cotton or other pure fiber (e.g. linen). Wash the shirt, and allow the water to drain into a pot. Add:

3 Mushrooms, sliced
4 Oz. Kale
1 Parsnip, chopped
1 Squash, diced
1 Tsp. Sage
2 Coriander Seeds
Dulse, to taste

Peace Clothing
" A subtle way to promote peace is through clothing," Merel Barknett says. "If you look at the history of fashion, people wear constricting garments during wartime. Outfits resemble uniforms. In peacetime, flowing, dreamy clothes appear. Recently, I am wearing long yellow dresses. As I walk through the world, people around me lose the urge to invade other countries."

Write-A-Novel Contest
Here is the first line of a novel:
"I am very unfriendly," he said, smiling.

Finish this novel, and submit it to Quarter to Three (this column). The winner will have their book published in this column, in extremely small excerpts, over the next several years. Our address is: I Wrote A Novel c/o Chronogram, Post Office Box 459, New Paltz, NY 12561, or e-mail info@chronogram.com.

Poem Number 31
salp

A Letter
Sparrow,
While I was traveling in the Midwest in the late '80s, I came upon a sign: WELCOME TO FLERMONT, THE DOLLAR TOWN. Sure enough, everything in that town cost a dollar or less. Even the gas was 99 cents a gallon.
"Where do you go if you need something expensive?"
I asked the owner of the General Store.
"Over to Gallette-it's only two miles away," he replied.
"Is this the only 'Dollar Town' in the world?" I persisted.
"Far as we know," he answered.
Then he sold me a pretty good trowel for 97 cents!
Regards,
Mary Femous