Little Richard

Brautigan wrote thousands of very short poems. Some of his poem titles were longer than the poems. Here are couple of my favorites.

From"Loading Mercury with a Pitchfork" comes this little gem:

Attila at the Gates of the Telephone Company

They said that
my telephone
would be fixed
by 6.
They guaranteed
it.

And from"The Pill Versus the Spring Hill Mine Disaster:"

Man

With his hat on
he's about five inches taller
than a taxicab.

For some reason, I think of Niel Simon when I read these. If Niel Simon wrote poems instead of plays, these are the kinds of things that might appear in Simon's notebook. Nuggets that he might work into something bigger later on. But Brautigan liked these as they were. Shiny pebbles. Bowling trophies.