Poem by John Allyn McAlpin Berryman

Dream Song 203

Nothing!—These young men come to interview me
armed with taperecorders, cameras,
the best ways of getting at you
so far invented save the telephone
and it costs money now to be alone:
to shut it off you need two

I have two & they ring from dawn to eve,
with extras in the night—can't shut them down:
awaiting a long distance call.
I read the 'paper gingerly lest I grieve,
ignore the radio & TV, don't go downtown:
truly isolated, pal.

However, I shudder & the world shrugs in, 
hilarious loves walking the streets like trees 
minus an ear,
men from far tribes armed in the dark, women 
cantering in from the plains just as they please 
with the water up to here.

1. Dream Song 125
2. 1 September 1939
3. Sonet 17. The Old Boys' blazers like a Mardi-Gras

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