Richard Brautigan Should Have A Post
by Alex Carnevale
These poems are among the finest writing in all of literature, and it is a little sad that they were already written, because you know, I actually did think I was the only one. Brautigan killed himself after talking to his girlfriend. It's sad because we would have been BFF and you'd never kill yourself if I was the one telling you you were the greatest.
IT'S RAINING IN LOVE
I don't know what it is,
But I distrust myself
When I start to like a girl
A lot.
It makes me nervous.
I don't say the right things
Or perhaps I start
To examine,
Evaluate,
Compute
What I am saying.
If I say, "Do you think it's going to rain?"
and she says, "I don't know,"
I start thinking: Does she really like me?
In other words
I get a little creepy.
A friend of mine once said,
"It's twenty times better to be friends
with someone
than it is to be in love with them."
I think he's right and besides,
it's raining somewhere, programming flowers
and keeping snails happy.
That's all taken care of.
BUT
if a girl likes me a lot
and starts getting real nervous
and suddenly begins asking me funny questions
and looks sad if I give the wrong answers
and she says things like,
"Do you think it's going to rain?"
and I say, "It beats me,"
and she says, "Oh,"
and looks a little sad
at the clear blue California sky,
I think: Thank God, it's you, baby, this time
Instead of me.
ALL GIRLS SHOULD HAVE A POEM
For Valerie
All girls should have a poem
written for them even if
we have to turn this God-damn world
upside down to do it.
New Mexico March 16, 1969
15%
She tries to get things out of men
that she can't get because she's not
15% prettier.
Where to find audio of Brautigan.
THE SISTER CITIES OF LOS ALAMOS, NEW MEXICO,
AND HIROSHIMA, JAPAN
It was snowing hard when we drove
into Los Alamos. There was a clinical feeling
to the town as if every man, woman and child
were a doctor. We shopped at the Safeway
and got a bag of groceries. A toddler
looked like a brain surgeon. He carefully
watched us shop at the exact place where he would
make his first incision.
LOVE'S NOT THE WAY TO TREAT A FRIEND
Love's not the way to treat a friend.
I wouldn't wish that on you. I don't
want to see your eyes forgotten
on a rainy day, lost in the endless purse
of those who can remember nothing.
Love's not the way to treat a friend.
I don't want to see you end up that way
with your body being poured like wounded
marble into the architecture of those who make
bridges out of crippled birds.
Love's not the way to treat a friend.
There are so many better things for you
than to see your feelings sold
as magic lanterns to somebody whose body
casts no light.
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
anymore
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