Rommel Drives on Deep into Egypt

by Richard Brautigan

Rommel Drives on Deep into Egypt
The Memoirs of Jesse James
Romeo and Juliet
Have You Ever Felt like a Wounded Cow
The Net Wt. of Winter Is 6.75 Ozs.
Postcard
15%
-2
Love Poem
Boo, Forever
Widow's Lament
My Nose is Growing Old

Rommel Drives on Deep into Egypt

Rommel is dead.
His army has joined the quicksand legions
of history where battle is always
a metal echo saluting a rusty shadow.
His tanks are gone.
How's your ass?

The Memoirs of Jesse James

I remember all those thousands of hours
that I spent in grade school watching the clock,
waiting for recess or lunch or to go home.
Waiting: for anything but school.
My teachers could easily have ridden with Jesse James for all the time they stole from me.

Romeo and Juliet

If you will die for me,
I will die for you

and our graves will
be like two lovers washing their clothes together
in a laundromat.

If you will bring the soap,
I will bring the bleach.

Have You Ever Felt like a Wounded Cow

Have you ever felt like a wounded cow
halfway between an over and a pasture?
walking in a trance toward a pregnant
seventeen-year-old housewife's
two-day-old cookbook?

The Net Wt. of Winter Is 6.75 Ozs.

The net wt. of winter is 6.75 ozs.
and winter has a regular flavor
with Fluoristan to stop tooth decay.

A month ago I bought a huge tube
or Crest tooth paste and when I put it
in the bathroom, I looked at it
and said, "Winter."

Postcard

I wonder if eighty-four-year-old Colonel Sanders
ever gets tired of travelling all around America talking about
fried chicken.

15%

She tries to get things
out of men
that she can't get
because she's not
15% prettier.

-2

Everybody wants to go to bed
with everybody else, they're
lined up for blocks, so I'll
go to bed with you. They won't
miss us.

Love Poem

It's so nice
to wake up in the morning
all alone
and not have to tell somebody
you love them
when you don't love them
any more

Boo, Forever

Spinning like a ghost
on the bottom of a
top,
I'm haunted by all
the space that I
will live without
you.

Widow's Lament

It's not quite cold enough
to go borrow some firewood
from the neighbors.

My Nose Is Growing Old

Yup.
A long lazy September look
in the mirror
says it's true:

I'm 31
and my nose is growing

old.
It starts about ½

an inch
below the bridge
and strolls geriatrically

down
for another inch or so:

stopping.
Fortunately, the rest
of the nose is comparatively

young.
I wonder if girls
will want me with an

old nose.
I can hear them now
the heartless bitches!

"He's cute

but his nose
is old."