John Ashbery




Botched Rollout 

Friends of the Tao curtail fancy matters.
Are you an in-depth person? Proud and sad?
OK, I’ll be pleasant. That’s how I kind of fixed it.
Both of our kids were unlikable characters.

I could hear you perfectly with the shades drawn,
you big man. Two sisters, one permanently
claims, with a bit of practice, the high estate
behind smilax. She’s plain. Very collectible. So the estimate

bill can go directly to him, heading home from work.
Is that little brain you’ve given me ever going to ring,
that piece of arrogance? Which way to the weep-in?
The act of repositioning downward has been pretty much mothballed,

so I would tell the fish story. Why stop to tell the president?
If one is halfway lost in a demented woodland,
what about the new book? Any thoughts?
I bet Mr. Wrigley appreciates that.