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Richard Brautigan (1935-1984)

Haiku Ambulance

A piece of green pepper
fell
off the wooden salad bowl:
so what?

(1950)
The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster. Houghton Mifflin, 1965.

Man

With his hat on
he's about five inches taller
than a taxicab.

Color As Beginning

Forget love
I want to die
in your yellow hair

Xerox Candy Bar

Ah,
you're just a copy
of all the candy bars
I've ever eaten.

Please

Do you think of me
as often
as I think
of you?

Surprise

I lift the toliet seat
as if it were the nest of a bird
and I see cat tracks
all around the edge of the bowl.

We Stopped at Perfect Days

We stopped at perfect days
and got out of the car.
The wind glanced at her hair.
It was as simple as that.
I turned to say something--

The Beautiful Poem

I go to bed in Los Angeles thinking
about you.

Pissing a few moments ago
I looked down at my penis
affectionately.

Knowing it has been inside
you twice today makes me
feel beautiful.

3 A.M.
January 15, 1967

At the California Institute of Technology

I don't care how God-damn smart
these guys are: ...... I'm bored.

It's been raining like hell all day long
and there's nothing to do.

Written January 24, 1967
while poet-in-residence at the California Institute of Technology.

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.

30 Cents, Two Transfers, Love

Thinking hard about you
I got on the bus
and paid 30 cents car fare
and asked the driver for two transfers
before discovering
that I was
alone.

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.

Karma Repair Kit: Items 1-4

1. Get enough food to eat,
and eat it.

2. Find a place to sleep where it is quiet,
and sleep there.

3. Reduce intellectual and emotional noise
until you arrive at the silence of yourself,
and listen to it.

4.

Just Because

Just because
people love your mind,
doesn't mean they
have to have
your body,
too.

Donner Party

Forsaken, fucking in the cold,
eating each other, lost
runny noses,
complaining all the time
like so many
people
that we know

Discovery

The petals of the vagina unfold
like Christofer Columbus
taking off his shoes.

Is there anything more beautiful
than the bow of a ship
touching a new world?

December 30

At 1:30 in the morning a fart
smells like a marriage between
an avocado and a fish head.

I have to get out of bed
to write this down without
my glasses on.

Mating Saliva

A girl in a green mini-
skirt, not very pretty, walks
down the street.

A businessman stops, turns
to stare at her ass
that looks like a moldy
refrigerator.

There are now 200,000,000 people
in America.

Milk For The Duck

ZAP!
unlaid / 20 days

my sexual image
isn't worth a shit.

If I were dead
I couldn't attract
a female fly.

Widow's Lament

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

if i should die before you do

When
you wake up
from death,
you will find yourself
in my arms,
and
I will be
kissing you,
and
I
will be crying

http://www.brautigan.net/
http://www.brautigan.net/june30.html