Richard Brautigan, U. S. Aircraft – Brautigan Drives On – Interference – Dreaming of Brautigan and Bukowski – In the Shadow of Brautigan – Kafka and Brautigan Meeting – A Question for Brautigan – To RB, with Gratitude – At a Cafe with Brautigan
=====================================
Richard Brautigan, U. S. Aircraft
translate Brautigan in the mornings
to warm up my brain
and after finishing it feel
like an old truck
whose tank
was filled up
not with usual Ultimate 98
but with aviation
Jet A
Brautigan Drives On
Rommel drives on
and Montgomery drives on
and Brautigan drives on
and I drive on
and you drive on
everyone drives on
deep into his own desert
in El Alamein in Herrlingen
in Alton in Bolinas
in Beijing in Saint Petersburg
in Riga
––––––––––––––––––
An allusion to Brautigan’s “Rommel Drives On Deep into Egypt”.
Interference
Charles Bukowski‘s machine-gun
chatters so loudly that it disturbs
Richard Brautigan while he is fishing
Richard Brautigan’s trout
glitters so brightly that it disturbs
Charles Bukowski while he is firing
––––––––––––––––––
“back to the machine gun” – a poem by Ch. Bukowski.
Dreaming of Brautigan and Bukowski
in my dreams Richard Brautigan
writes postcards to all lawns of
the planet and confides the
delivery to trout males provided
they have served at any post
office in Los-Angeles not less
than ten years
while Charles Bukowski tries to
find out why he hasn’t found
the current issue of Trout Fishing
in America in his mailbox but
his investigation is hindered by
Babylon
–––––––––––––––––––––
An allusion to Brautigan’s “Dreaming of Babylon” and “Post office” by Bukowski.
In the Shadow of Brautigan
nothing has taken her place when she left
even the shadow of the Hindenburg
an attempt to build a word bridge
over the void of absence
but in vain
dirigibles no longer cast shadows
and there is no place for a crash
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––
An allusion to Brautigan’s “Your Departure Versus the Hindenburg”.
Kafka and Brautigan Meeting
if Kafka and Brautigan
met somewhere
in Prague
on the Charles Bridge
or in Montana
beside a river rich with trout
a lot would change in this world
over the river in Montana
beautiful bridges
would cross
and at the Charles Bridge
in Prague
from morning to evening
fishermen would
crowd
hoping to catch
a beautiful
trout
–––––––––––––––––––
An allusion to Brautigan’s “Trout Fishing” and Kafka’s “The Bridge”.
A Question for Brautigan
where would I find a shovel
to cut my life into halves
so that one half may crawl
toward the infinitesimal
while the other half flies
toward the eternal
––––––––––––––––––
"Digging the April ground with a shovel // that looked like Harpo Marx, I cut a woman in two..." - Richard Brautigan. “April Ground”.
To RB, with Gratitude
Richard Brautigan
is such a marvelous wandering circus
a miraculous floating bridge
an armful of dandelions grabbed
from the lawns all over the world
when reading his poems
I begin to love words again
though it seemed
to me that falling in love
with them again
was completely impossible
********
At a Cafe with Brautigan
Richard Brautigan
is sitting
at the next table
watching the beer bubbles.
I know: his thoughts
are now opening an airlock
to reach the surface
of the planet discovered
yesterday by "Hubble".