Bernadette Mayer
So called inauguration of 1981
Proposal of love from an inept suitor
Pity poor instinctual America love all
Wrong greedy mismatched middle class mates
Is all doesnt need to be said at Liberty
Meanwhile on the streets powerless in the funny
Light a man named I Cant Remember Anything said
I’m not doing so bad I’ve only got a
Homeopathic alcoholism but otherwise he turned
With Rastafarian braids or sets of hair
To the crowds behind shouting Hey! Narrative!
I’m waiting! I’m waiting to be at Liberty!
Then I shot behind a single man thinking to make
Things safe for me by crossing the street behind him
And he, the typical wayfaring dentist-type,
Jaywalked south as I was going north to the xerox.
An inaugural woman in the xerox place turned
As I was nearly leaning on her stuff and I saw
She was white pale like they are with her bright
Red lipstick, I was shocked as if I was watching
A Werner Herzog movie no Fassbinder, I shot into
The grocer’s wondering if they thought I buy
Too much beer there, I got the apple from
The fruit market where the Korean woman articulates
“Twenty cents” so beautifully, once I bought
A clementine there, the same place where
They have all the most beautiful red potatoes,
Very small ones. In Maria’s near Marie’s school
They dont have such a great variety of fruits
And vegetables in the winter but they do have pasta
Italian pasta and olive oil and once they had purple
Cauliflower which I’d never seen before. Also,
The woman adds up the prices in Italian,
Quattrocento, millecento, abracadabra, felice
Navidad I am madly in love. At the fruitstand
Next to hers which is another Korean one
There they have everything, it’s like entering
The fucking World Trade Center, the entire
Business of the center of the world of fruits
And vegetables—leeks, broccoli rape, bibb
Lettuce, red lettuce, sprouts, the accustomed
Luxury of watercress, big red potatoes, fennel,
Giant peculiar looking strawberries from Florida
(It’s winter), real spinach, carrots with tops,
Beets with greens and all the things the Korean
Markets can seem to get that the other places dont.
Further down the street is a perfunctory market
That sometimes seems to have the cheapest apples
Not only Cortland but also Macintosh and Delicious
Though I dont know why the Delicious are more expensive
Because they dont taste as good. Beyond is the famous
7th street market which is open all night
There you can obtain cheap baskets of aging fruits,
Cheap lettuce, cheap broccoli and nuts but if
You’re not on your guard you’ll wind up buying
2 grapefruits for a dollar forty-nine.
Across the street before that
If you can cross the street is another
Of the famous Korean markets which has everything
All that is both precious and mundane but the carrots
Are expensive there. Nearest our house is a tiny
Alleyway of a fruit market at which the people
Are so slow to weigh what you buy that you’d
Best not have to stop there if in a hurry however
Oranges and grapefruits are cheap there
And they have figs and olives. Behind that place
Rather hidden on 4th Street in another place
That also sells flowers and if you really want to know,
Marijuana. This place is so expensive you can never
Go there, I dont understand how they manage to keep stocked
With so much unsellable fruit and stuff except once
We bought something there and the woman was as if
Right out of Dickens so I could see having
An irrational devotion to her and the flowers are
The only ones nearby. I forgot to mention the new
Semi-religious health food place on 9th Street, that,
When it’s not too cold, sells fruit & vegetables outdoors.
They began to sell them very cheaply but now everything
Is expensive and I’d suggest you shun them today.
All the markets have to put some or most things inside
When it gets to be zero, or they cover all the oranges
With plastic. In the morning it’s nice to watch
The markets opening up and imagine running one,
At one of the Korean ones there’s always a child
Running around amidst the spring’s kittens.
On this inauguration day of the most hateful
Ideals I like to think nostalgically of fruits
And vegetables because the sight of them gives
Pleasure and the fruits and vegetables, their weight
And measure, are transient enough that there is stuff
To give away or sell at a reduced cost to those whose
Exigencies are more primary though we are all feebly
Observably ready to marry with our most ideal love
A grief at the most sorry most sublime state of being
Human among the ages of the people I see this January
On First and Second Avenues between 4th Street and
12th Street (and this is not the half of it), I wish
I could meet a man or woman who would say to me today
Look this way and dont worry and if each color by you
Like a lover so lent to the streets
Is a bright presence like a person then
The sadness of a person’s desire doesnt matter,
I would love to reflect like the transient
Vegetables this joy as if an object the way
People say congratulations it’s a girl or boy!
Sentient apple, quite fat, did love my
Stealing it and happiest tree-like broccoli
Was endeavoring to seduce me wholeheartedly
And enticing fancy leek enabled me to be meek
(Poor man’s asparagus), so I saw everything
And was able to calm down by stopping to look
And see if the famous comice pears were almost
Ripe enough for us to have the patience to wait
To eat them and it may sound opulent to mention
So much stuff but actually all this this & that
—Dont be fooled—is as it should be and thus
I pray is as it would be if only you,
Impatient sullen mushrooms, would love me.
Bernadette Mayer is the author of over 27 collections, including most recently Works and Days (2016), Eating The Colors Of A Lineup Of Words: The Early Books of Bernadette Mayer (2015) and The Helens of Troy (2013), as well as countless chapbooks and artist-books. From 1980-1984, she served as the director of the St. Mark’s Poetry Project, and has also edited and founded 0 to 9 journal and United Artists books and magazines.