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• Classic-Fiction

ask the sidewalk painters of Paris

ask the sunlight on a sleeping dog

ask the 3 pigs

ask the paperboy

ask the music of Donizetti

ask the barber

ask the murderer

ask the man leaning against a wall

ask the preacher

ask the maker of cabinets

ask the pickpocket or the

pawnbroker or the glass blower

or the seller of manure or

the dentist

ask the revolutionist

ask the man who sticks his head in

the mouth of a lion

ask the man who will release the next

atom bomb

ask the man who thinks he’s Christ

ask the bluebird who comes home

at night

ask the peeping Tom

ask the man dying of cancer

ask the man who needs a bath

ask the man with one leg

ask the blind

ask the man with the lisp

ask the opium eater

ask the trembling surgeon

ask the leaves you walk upon

ask a rapist or a

streetcar conductor or an old man

pulling weeds in his garden

ask a bloodsucker

ask a trainer of fleas

ask a man who eats fire

ask the most miserable man you can

find in his most

miserable moment

ask a teacher of judo

ask a rider of elephants

ask a leper, a lifer, a lunger

ask a professor of history

ask the man who never cleans his

fingernails

ask a clown or ask the first face you see

in the light of day

ask your father

ask your son and

his son to be

ask me

ask a burned-out bulb in a paper sack

ask the tempted, the damned, the foolish

the wise, the slavering

ask the builders of temples

ask the men who have never worn shoes

ask Jesus

ask the moon

ask the shadows in the closet

ask the moth, the monk, the madman

ask the man who draws cartoons for

The New Yorker

ask a goldfish

ask a fern shaking to a tapdance

ask the map of India

ask a kind face

ask the man hiding under your bed

ask the man you hate the most in this

world

ask the man who drank with Dylan Thomas

ask the man who laced Jack Sharkey’s gloves

ask the sad-faced man drinking coffee

ask the plumber

ask the man who dreams of ostriches every

night

ask the ticket taker at a freak show

ask the counterfeiter

ask the man sleeping in an alley under

a sheet of paper

ask the conquerors of nations and planets

ask the man who has just cut off his finger

ask a bookmark in the bible

ask the water dripping from a faucet while

the phone rings

ask perjury

ask the deep blue paint

ask the parachute jumper

ask the man with the bellyache

ask the divine eye so sleek and swimming

ask the boy wearing tight pants in

the expensive academy

ask the man who slipped in the bathtub

ask the man chewed by the shark

ask the one who sold me the unmatched

gloves

ask these and all those I have left out

ask the fire the fire the fire—

ask even the liars

ask anybody you please at any time

you please on any day you please

whether it’s raining or whether

the snow is there or whether

you are stepping out onto a porch

yellow with warm heat

ask this ask that

ask the man with birdshit in his hair

ask the torturer of animals

ask the man who has seen many bullfights

in Spain

ask the owners of new Cadillacs

ask the famous

ask the timid

ask the albino

and the statesman

ask the landlords and the poolplayers

ask the phonies

ask the hired killers

ask the bald men and the fat men

and the tall men and the

short men

ask the one-eyed men, the

oversexed and undersexed men

ask the men who read all the newspaper

editorials

ask the men who breed roses

ask the men who feel almost no pain

ask the dying

ask the mowers of lawns and the attenders

of football games

ask any of these or all of these

ask ask ask and

they’ll all tell you:

a snarling wife on the balustrade is more

than a man can bear.

a future congressman

in the men’s room at the

track

this boy of about

7 or 8 years old

came out of a stall

and the man

waiting for him

(probably his father)

asked,

“what did you do with the

racing program?

I gave it to you

to keep.”

“no,” said the boy,

“I ain’t seen it! I don’t

have it!”

they walked off and

I went into the stall

because it was the only one

available

and there

in the toilet

was