Jonathan Hayes – The Bottom Line


Jonathan Hayes

The Bottom Line


I collect the cat’s orange toenails
Which have fallen off onto the wooden floor
During its scratching of the wicker chair

I also open the window so it can go out
On the fire escape and brush its furry mug up against
The neighbor’s window for entrance & vittles

[inside the studio]

The movie is rewound
Ready to be returned

A dog barks on East 87th Street and First Avenue

This last tenement neighborhood of Yorkville
By Hell Gate & red paper hearts in the green park

The bells of Saint Joseph’s seem so far away

Make an altar out of the last day

NEW YEAR’S / New York City

& a sixty-cents coffee headache

Heading for Kennedy Airport in a yellow cab
By Ward’s Island & the Cantos of a departure

Legs & cocktails

Seated by a stranger to crash

w/

return to SHAMPOO 14