in the kiss of the hops

[mindbum]

dear tom--

i'm doing laundry.
matter o fact,
there's a pile o wet
laundry on the backwards
turned chair
i have to coolly
reach over to type.

i finished the tom robbins book
today in the park by the krishna tree
with a chocolate malted. all this
scent & love & . . .
i finished
& sat calm & breathed in
all of tompkins square park
on a warm summer day. i ate it.
i gobbled it. i relished it.
i crowed it. i knowed it.
& i ws relaxed

& happy enough to walk
away with a whistle.

how i hope a simliar,
if more monumental,
burden will lift
once i've returned
to yr book & borne
the yoke of a paltry
three hundred pages.

home now, doing laundry.
just returned with an armload
of wet things to strew
about the furniture & doors
to dry less stressfully,
less wastefully.

as i got to the door of the bldg
saw the little old chinese
lady and her cart.

i walkt over 'excuse me'
she turned & smiled.
i pointed at her cart
& up to the bedroom window
of my second storey swamp.
she nodded. 'thank you' big smile.
'i'll be right back'

up. threw the bundle on the chairback
found the tied plastic shopping bags
saved for the chance to share
tosst the stray bottles & cans
in another bag & toted it all down.
a fair haul

she smiled & thankt me
& set to sorting
the bags of treasure through.

i came in
& opened a schlitz.

in the kiss of the hops,
a

[joel]

i went through this like your chinese treasure hunter, sorting through the jewels of someone else's life for what became precious in my sight and all the time some early-comer tom cats went feral scratching and rubbing against my wizened legs. awesome!

[hester_prynne]

brilliant. A joy to read, I ate it up, gobbled it up under the mindbum tree...

H