NYC Poetry, May 2009, by Karen and Justin

I. Hot Dog Poem

I think hotdogs must be standardized
'cause that's all you get
ketchup and maybe mustard
for 99 cents,
2 dollars,
3 dollars--do I hear 4?
the price increases at the same rate
subway standers change color,
from black and brown to yellow and white


II. Everything (In NYC) is Poetry

Sticky garbage is art,
but only if you put it in a frame,
or if you can sell it to tourists


III. Subway Map

But why no sushi?
connect the dots! la la la la!
Stringy strings stringing through
and where is my Italian fantasy?!
Fabuous fabled fettuccine forthwith
no North--only Bronx--
Bedford Park Blvd--
Brighton Beach--
Two stops late to proper payment make
are we at the end of the line?


IV. Sunscreen

Screens screened tourists between filters
High culture, green culture, criss-cross
Strained Shakespearean sunlight.
Quoth the illuminious poet,
Smirks like the sunset twinkling on the twilight ocean water
Admit more wry depth than an organic net of streets.


V. Shell

This shell is like my sea-coated ears
there's something alive inside,
a gooey monster.

And Coney Island is like the humid bletch
that spotches the boardwalk and clings to my skin.
Once the fair fare of fairy tale 20th century fairs is long melted,
just a discarded, dry, sugar puddle.


VI. Ode on a Choking Victimé

Choking victim, choking victim,
Wherefore doest thou obstreprous?
Whereforest dost thou nottest clamp thyne palate?

Rats spoiled again didst thou masticate?
Manging mangey morsels porcelain caught
after omniverous laugh.


VII. Gratuitous Gratuity

This is kind of ridiculous.
Golden paneled golden panels
reinventing today's forecast.
Technology makes us unaccountable;
we reverse our consequences.
O Catharsis! Feed thy fantastical
fictions to us--May they taste
in us some flavor of truth.
The curtain, ostensibly decadent.