A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man and Ulysses stand side by side…sandwiched in by Norman Mailer novels…on a desk amongst keys…liquid soap…a coffee-pot…

Tropic of Capricorn and Ted Hughes lean upon a red leather-bound Bible towards the end of the bookcase…a silver mug used for Kentucky Mules prevents them all from falling…Unamuno lay on his back taking in Sun-light…quarter filled boxes of fried-rice and lo mein dance ’round the Spaniard…

Cervantes and Simic sit on an Ottoman…waiting and waiting to be read again…and again…once is never enough…while Baudrillard’s, America…bent and warped…cling to Shepard in a night-stand drawer to be read…just before dreaming…just before dreaming…

these friends i keep…
these friends i keep…