CHAR*IS*MA
 
 
CHAR*IS*MA

FROM OUR ARCHIVES


MANDELBROT'S CHICKEN, or, THE ORIGINS OF SCIENCE


A BRIEF HISTORY


BLACKOUT


OPENING


STARTING OUT


MANNA OF THE DAY


STANLEY


PRIOR EXPERIENCE


In New York there’s always an alarm going off
And a garbage truck gurgitating
And a pesky dog barking
And that astonishing phenomenon known to its denizens
As alternate side of the street parking.
Basically it means
That the first thing you do in the morning
Tired and yawning
Is go out and move your car
From one side of the street to the other—
Unless you’re my mother
Who can never remember
Where she left it the night before—
Three blocks away or outside the front door?
Which is why she sends me out
Every morning before school
As a scout
To scour the neighborhood
In search of our beat-up, dented, rusty, second-hand automobile—
Which no-one will steal—
And why every morning
Before the bus
There’s this terrible fuss
When she looks at me in a kind of bleary miasma
And I have to tell her
All over again
Sunshine or rain
“I don’t know where the CAR IS, MA.”