B.S. Johnson

Write a book of debt everyone must pay
exact revenge in a grotesque way

build a taj mahal on vacation time
the kid will frag the sap before the ink is dry

its as good as any joke I know

Write a book of leaves shuffled by the wind
two unbound lives orderless and grim

setup to ensure failing miserably
to sublimate a world into poetry

but make sure your last intentions known

you were dead by 42
there'll be no rigid form for you

jammed into a plot that you'd never fit
a tiny manuscript with a whole cut in it

as you drifted off to sleep
my mother set bedtime for me

terry cloth robe with a hand me down fit
playing in the bath with a warship in it

you were gone by 42
there'll be no rigid form for you

jammed into a plot where you never would fit
a tiny manuscript with a whole cut in it

as you drifted off to sleep
my mother set bedtime for me

terry cloth robe with a hand me down fit
playing in the bath with a warship in it