June poems by David Lehman

• June 6
• No two are identical though
• they begin from the same
• point in time the same point in
• the dream when the radio shuts
• itself off in the middle of
• “Just in Time” (Sinatra version)
• the curtains are blowing in
• and the driver of the hearse
• outside looks up and says “Room
• for one more” and now you
• know what kind of hospital you’re in
• and you must escape from it
• by acting “normal” pretending there isn’t
• a conspiracy against you as Dead of Night
• shifts into Shock Corridor
• there are a dozen versions of this dream
• I keep thinking of what Ashbery said
• about escapism he said we need
• all the escapism we can get
• and even that isn’t going to be enough

• June 11
• It’s my birthday I’ve got an empty
• stomach and the desire to be
• lazy in the hammock and maybe
• go for a cool swim on a hot day
• with the trombone in Sinatra’s
• “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”
• in my head and then to break for
• lunch a corned-beef sandwich and Pepsi
• with plenty of ice cubes unlike France
• where they put one measly ice cube
• in your expensive Coke and when
• you ask for more they argue with
• you they say this way you get more
• Coke for the money showing they
• completely misunderstand the nature of
• American soft drinks which are an
• excuse for ice cubes still I wouldn’t
• mind being there for a couple of
• days Philip Larkin’s attitude
• toward China comes to mind when
• asked if he’d like to go there he said
• yes if he could return the same day

• June 19
• What is it about the Abyss 
• that tempts the young poet to kiss 
• the air and head for the nearest cliff? This 
• unreasonable attachment to the bliss 
• of falling -- what accounts for it? Unlike the hiss 
• announcing a reptilian presence, the word Abyss 
• creates the object of our dread: it exists, it is, 
• widening like the gulf between whis- 
• key and wine, and we, drunk on neither, miss 
• the days when we, too, tumbled headlong out of heaven, pissed

David Lehman (b. 1948) is an American poet, journalists and literary critic best known for being the founder and series editor of The Best American Poetry series (1988 to present). As a freelance writer, he has published 16 volumes of verse and several works of non-fiction, including critical studies of poets John Ashbery and James Merrill — and an appraisal of the works and days of Frank Sinatra.