Weekend - John Ashbery

Swan filets and straw wine,
an emphatic look to the driveway
whose golf clubs are scattered feelingly.

You can undress and sit down
on the corduroy doormat blowing
and when the Weird Sisters come calling
pretend to be talking to yourself.

Trouble is they don't come calling,
suffering as they do from terminal agoraphobia.
A frog juts from a pinecone.

My goodness was that you back there?
You sure know
how to give a feller a good scare.
I'd thought it was just bats
dripping tar on the heads of the guests and the footmen.
You see so little live action in this town
and then everybody wants to cooperate
or celebrate, sort of. I can do that too.
Always. Have a good time.
Something might come out in group therapy:
your velvet soul as I just realized it.
Please come back. I liked you so much.

Thistles, dandelions, what do we care?



[Ashbery, J. (2000) Your Name Here. Manchester: Carcanet. p]




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