Zero removes from the left hand, but at least two or three inches, from the quiet center of a coffee shop, Town Unknown, New Zealand, a very large fly doesn't land, though it could. Any minute...

Three removes from the corner of Grant and Villejo, someone named Brodsky, gender unknown, returns like an echo, like fingertips, the tail of a lizard, the lilac skirt . . . behold: the perfect ear.

Four removes from Utopia Parkway, a lazy strand of helium kills Charlie Gusslewump's 6th birthday party, kills it dead, the kids cannot even throw a ball for weeks after that, the ball store closes, you get the idea.

Three removes from Utopia Parkway, a boy in a red overcoat, not smiling, never, holds a digital camera in memory of nobody's specific Woody Guthrie.

Two removes from Utopia Parkway, a young ballerina tries to crawl inside a shoebox while a knowledgeable onlooker, freshly shaved, thinks, "this is how it often is with art, but this is maybe not how it ought to be."

Our Spring Writing Effort

We'd spoken about this on the phone and I thought about it. For the next few months why won't we try to write a long poem line by line, using anaphoric structures so things don't get too convoluted. I suggest writing a poem that tries to record everything that's happening in the world as we're imagining it.

Example:

"Two removes from South Baltimore, Angie Keens, 5 years old, stands on her tip toes before her mom's mirror, wearing a tiara and K-Mart angel wings.

Two removes from Hoboken, Marsha Priss sleeps in Shivasana."

And so on. No doubt there'll be a lot of shaky or just plain bad writing but maybe it'll do the job. If we're wanting something to occupy our minds for a few months, this should be as good as anything.

Oh and: a good book worth picking up: "Map of Time" by David Christian. Be well,

Dear Knee,

Brilliant. Is that the official movie poster or are you just playing around?