Why Are You Writing These

            to try to remember 
what you is that nothing much happens for 
17 years it was rich 
living in isolation in a populous city 
remember when I hated my neighbor because he was noisy 
I didn’t hate him I couldn’t look at him I wanted to 
kick him out  he held raves every weekend 
I called the cops a lot and worked with a certain policeman 
who discovered my neighbor had been arrested in Bordeaux 
for breaking furniture  he finally stopped paying rent 
had to leave then the gardienne and I gave thumbs-up signs 
across rue des Messageries  she has since moved to Valencia 
I’m interested in how totally against him I was 
you could say I have sensitive ears that simply react 
his mother came up from Toulouse once to help him clean 
we were overrun with mice she caught seven 
one morning with glue traps excuse me she said I’m the mother of 
your neighbor who’s sometimes noisy do you have mice 
I tried to tell her I’d seen them slide down the gas-pole like firemen 
but I didn’t have the French for that and French firemen don’t 
she had a dream of moving to San Diego 
I don’t mind any of it except for my ears 
I was born receptive and sound shakes me up 
I have a poem in which the universe is like a vocal cord 
it must also be an ear infinite reception 
music destroys thought poetry is it I couldn’t have 
been bothered to tell this story in prose  A decision was 
taken after time began to maintain a prose universe 
I have been bored ever since and keep to myself 
though contrarily trying to save you from the materials 
of your destructive lives masses of noise anything 
to forget what and maybe I am only a nerve 
or am nerve if you could remember shut up and remember 
or is it not remember I am in a state of vibration 
every possible sound available why or is it only 
something to do the one thing to do or is it only 
Helen Morgan again singing Why was I born / Why am I living 
I have nothing to show for my time but poems
what do you have