To John Ashbery
The 1950s were the "unendurable age"
I agree
Boy, do I agree
But I was too young to know
How bad it was
Only in looking back . . .
Now here we are in another
Unendurable age
I'm not sure when it started
Or when it will end
Or if it will end in my lifetime
It's not personal My car
works, for now Our garden
is coming up My clothes
are clean There is food
In the fridge, the pantry
And the basement Potable
well water from the tap
I like my neighbors well enough
Hey, let's go fishing There we can talk by the river I don't fish but if you fish
that will be good enough I know a good spot It's quiet and peaceful there
My father took me fishing
When I was little
He baited the hook for me
I didn't want to hurt the worm
He caught a sunfish
Just to show me how easy it was
Silver-gold in the sun
He konked it on the head
Tossed it in the bucket
And rebated the line
I said I want to go home
Defending my reason for not fishing
Was endurable
But that was just the tip of the iceberg
Killing seemed like a big part of life
Hey, let's go fishing There we can talk by the river I don't fish but if you fish
that will be good enough I know a good spot It's quiet and peaceful there
I had nightmares
Of the end of the world in the unendurable age
One day we went for a family outing
To look at bomb shelters
My father was most interested
In the hand-operated air exchanger
I asked,
Where is the bathroom?
I was seven
Bathrooms were important
I used to play in a place called Pink Ravine
It wasn't pink
But it was my favorite place
To spend a summer afternoon
With friends
The farmer who owned the land
Had a stand-off with the cops
His son got drunk
And hurt someone
So the cops followed him home
They barricaded the door
There was an exchange of gunfire
No one got hurt
But my mother wouldn't let me
Play in Pink Ravine any more
Hey, let's go fishing There we can talk by the river I don't fish but if you fish
that will be good enough I know a good spot It's quiet and peaceful there
The unendurable age was very much the world of
Roosevelt on the dime
That I was born into in 1951
Lincoln on the penny
And Washington on the quarter
Watching over everything
The little metal fathers
Trust in something bigger than
My tree house
And my key collection
Got me through the unendurable age
I believed in Howard Johnson's
27 flavors
I believed in Roosevelt's power
To buy me a candy bar
I believed in ocean liners
Hey, let's go fishing There we can talk by the river I don't fish but if you fish
that will be good enough I know a good spot It's quiet and peaceful there
(Article changed on May 30, 2022 at 8:41 AM EDT)
(Article changed on May 31, 2022 at 11:48 AM EDT)
