Room 903, Holiday Inn Tower, Lakewood
by Mark Steinberg
She fell like an expelled angel
plummeting and spinning
arms and legs flailing
bursting a suckling sky
some eleven stories brooding
bending in the twilight
that cloud crusted erection
called Holiday Inn, Lakewood
towered insatiability
"unknown woman leaps from top of Holiday Tower"
unknown to newspaper readers
(but known well to me)
a husband discarded with children left alone
lovers, dozens and dozens
her back ached, I heard her say
was a jangle of weekends battered
in those years of squeezed thunder
amid the rancored air soaking
in closets unfringed and uprooted
unsuitable, she said
then exulting away, not speaking
to the Holiday Inn, Lakewood
was foaming nights in bawdy places
seeking that complete lover
clutching for the fuller moonrise
screaming in naked jugglery
then chill upon the sidewalk
twisted and cracked and broken
yet the Holiday Tower, rigid splitting dusky cloud
eight of us at the funeral
eight mourners with bloodless eyes
the metal casket covered
remains not viewable the director said
l'envoi: in room 903, Holiday, Lakewood
a well used makeup case with
a brass of scarlet lipstick
and a pcakage of tart breathmints
opened, a single mint missing
Interpretations
by Mark Steinberg
I had a dream the other night
About a Zebra who was black with white
That is to say, he was basic black
With alternate white stripes down his back
And on his neck and head and even his toes
And maybe inside (only heaven knows)
I awoke with a start and pondered my dream
Was there something to analyze? (so it might seem)
I've done analysis and astrology (I'm a Libra)
But this was the very first time in my dreams, there was a Zebra
So I pounded my pillow like a perplexed dunce
And stretched my body and fell asleep at once
The dream re-opned and there was Zebra, number two
(was there a hole in some sumniative zoo)?
Number two Zebra was obviously white
(I'm going to be calm and erudite)
We was the shitest Zebra you ever did see
With black stripes running alternately
The two Zebras got together - It gets hazy right here
Which was which, I looked at the head and the rear
The white with the black stripes was on the right side
Or was it the black with the white stripes? I couldn't decide
My brain got dizzy and I just couldn't cope
Was I in some busy Zebra kaleidescope?
I awoke again at once and I must admit
I was trembling all over and sweating a bit
Now, on this earth there are many a different creature
Any one of which a dream can feature
There are elephants and snakes and even amoebas
But why is it my dream centered on Zebras?
I have a headache, a backache, and am really annoyed!
Fetch me an aspirin, some Bourbon, and that book by Dr. Freud
A Cramped Little Notice
by Mark Steinberg
It was a cramped little notice
tucked in the right lower corner
of the evening paper
the page opposite the classified section
on top of an advertisement for damaged athletic shoes
aside another ad depicting the excitment of driving a Honda
a cramped little notice
in cramped little letters
announcing my death
Reflections with a Razor
by Mark Steinberg
It is time to let go of delusion
It is time to let that visage in the mirror
verify what is indeed there,
this aging guy with thinning, whitish strands,
deepening lines arcing the mouth,
eyes that no longer exult,
a widening nose getting soft,
eyebrows that need trimming-
this waning fellow who has
the bruised air of one who no longer can fancy or dream,
who remembers too much-
It is time to let go...
Maybe it is time to be with those old folks who keep calling
those older folks,
who talk of pensions, heart attacks, interest bearing accounts,
cholesterol, grand children, religion, politics, television,
dying, death, Death...
Yes, it's time to let go
of wearing Levis and Nikes,
going to rock concerts,
talking to people in bars,
riding horseback, skiing, taking chances,
traveling everywhere, lifting weights,
seeing movies, reading poetry--
Yes, it is time to let go...
but not quite yet