Book of Sketches - Jack Kerouac [59]
across the street 2nd story window
& so I see all his in-between
actions & attitudes, a definite
(holy) phoney, (I mean his
life is harder than mine by far),
when it came time for him to
blow his nose after sneezing
he didnt shake spastically
but efficiently withdrew a
napkin from his coat & blew
his nose hard 3 times then
put it back in his pocket
— Even poor women give him
coins & he places all of them
in a funny space behind his back
belt — His feet are tired, he
whomps them up in a dance &
down —
When fat businessman glides
by blowing smoke contemptly
at him he hangs his head in
contemplative shame — He
looks up, scratches his neck,
feels his coat pocket, sways,
& waits beneath the light
(as I)
(Who’ve just finished a T-bone
steak
in Kuku’s)
Above him I see dim
figures in the Woolworth
storerooms as of dance-
class-ing & mamboing
Being as I am now off drugs,
after a fine meal I feel like
I did as a kid in Lowell, an
excited happy mind — It’s
Saturday in Mex City & the streets
lead to all kinds of fascinating
lighted vistas, movies, stores, pepsi
colas, whorehouses, nightclubs,
children playing in brownstreet
lamps & the sleep of the
Fellaheen dog in some old
grand doorway
YES, the end to a perfect meal
is always the grand cup of
black coffee, here or in
Sweets Seafood Restaurant, NY
or in Paree, anywhere, the
warm rich comforter (which
prepares the appetite for chocolates
on the homeward walk, preferably
milk chocolate & nuts) —
It’s the exciting hour in MCity
or anycity, 8 on Sat nite, when
the 5 & 10’s closing & the show
crowds rush & newsboys shout,
trolley bells clang, like soft
like Lowell long ago when
I had that swarming vision
PENGUIN POETS
JOHN ASHBERY
Selected Poems
Self-Portrait in a
Convex Mirror
TED BERRIGAN
The Sonnets
JIM CARROLL
Fear of Dreaming:
The Selected Poems
Living at the Movies
Void of Course
ALISON HAWTHORNE
DEMING
Genius Loci
CARL DENNIS
New and Selected
Poems 1974-2004
Practical Gods
Ranking the Wishes
DIANE DI PRIMA
Loba
STUART DISCHELL
Dig Safe
STEPHEN DOBYNS
Mystery, So Long
Velocities:
New and Selected
Poems: 1966-1992
AMY GERSTLER
Crown of Weeds
Ghost Girl
Nerve Storm
EUGENE GLORIA
Drivers at the Short-
Time Motel
Hoodlum Birds
DEBORA GREGER
Desert Fathers,
Uranium Daughters
God
Western Art
TERRANCE HAYES
Hip Logic
Wind in a Box
ROBERT HUNTER
Sentinel and Other
Poems
MARY KARR
Viper Rum
JACK KEROUAC
Book of Blues
Book of Haikus
Book of Sketches
ANN LAUTERBACH
Hum
If in Time:
Selected Poems,
1975-2000
On a Stair
CORINNE LEE
PYX
PHYLLIS LEVIN
Mercury
WILLIAM LOGAN
Macbeth in Venice
Night Battle
The Whispering
Gallery
MICHAEL MCCLURE
Huge Dreams:
San Francisco
and Beat Poems
DAVID MELTZER
David’s Copy:
The Selected Poems
of David Meltzer
CAROL MUSKE
An Octave Above
Thunder
Red Trousseau
ALICE NOTLEY
The Descent of Alette
Disobedience
Mysteries of Small
Houses
PATTIANN ROGERS
Generations
STEPHANIE
STRICKLAND
V: WaveSon.nets/
Losing L’una
ANNE WALDMAN
Kill or Cure
Marriage: A Sentence
Structure of the
World Compared
to a Bubble
JAMES WELCH
Riding the Earthboy
40
PHILIP WHALEN
Overtime: Selected
Poems
ROBERT WRIGLEY
Lives of the Animals
Reign of Snakes
MARK YAKICH
Unrelated Individuals
Forming a Group
Waiting to Cross
JOHN YAU
Borrowed Love Poems