Beginners

Michael Klein
Truth went through a leaky funnel starting in late
1963
that blade-lit afternoon Gary Orrin laughed at
Kennedys murder
bleeding through the static of P.S. 41s cheap PA.
Theres Greenwich Village
a drowsy dandelionI called it onceand there
are the heartsick monitors of afternoons.
My mother is late to pick me up, again. Shes
almost better,
but will never find a way to manage the cure.
Outside American family life,
nothing happens for years until OJs glove:
interspersed with some other
sloppy American truth. If I didnt know everything
I already know
I could count on the dog while she rifles through
her morning bowl
in the next room. Poor Ruby. She knows more than
I do.
She is eating the world to save it.