Shelley Berman
did not want
his plane to land
an hour early
against the side of a mountain.
(audience giggles here)
I remember
the sense of escape
like a near miss
when he delivered that line.
The holiday trip interrupted
by the unexpected fame
of an unexpected flameout.
Live, on Network Television
we watched a civilization
collapse into rising astonishing clouds.
Just as we watched
the Berlin Wall fall
to pickaxes
and sled hammers
and joy.
Just as we watched Hussein’s
metal head roll off
his toppled metal carcass.
Just as we watched Mussolini
and his woman dragged
dead through the streets of Rome.
We could just go on and on:
everybody’s tragedy is
somebody’s dream come true.
