POETRY



My Babysitters by Anselm Berrigan

Most of my babysitters came of age during the fisting revolution of the late seventies. My brothers the clams were shot in their bungalows on channel 11. During the investigation Eddie and I discovered God's calf massager. Eight feet wide and thirty feet long, surrounded by sand pipers. My dad said he'd fuck anyone who thought he was terrific. Prageeta advises against becoming a man who uses poetry to prove he still has sex. Eddie said pretend you thought it was a neurotic poetry reading. Two of my babysitters took pictures of naked guy poets in order to learn their fluffing techniques. I saw all the pictures when I was nine on a calendar. "As good as Beethoven and Patti Smith in their garter belts," Mom said. Kevin likes to say "Anselm's fisting Chee-tos" in his poems a lot, but I meant feasting cheetahs. I want to do boring things with my lover like trying the blender on low. Eddie said he'd have sex with Colorado but not New York. I said I wouldn't steal his lines anymore. Facing the other way on top was too ab-ex: obscurity does not please my lover. I used to think I'd be good at being either a groupie or a therapist. As a poet with lower-case p I get to be both. "The way you keep your eyes to the ground when you wander into traffic totally turns me on" I heard one of my babysitters say. I liked the way they let me stay up in 1982. I learned from another babysitter couple how unimpressive nudity could be. Sometimes I think of my babysitters as a community. Sometimes I'm not sure that becoming cynical about sexual transgression before reaching puberty was such a good thing for my development. The idea of me and Bowie sleeping together was such a gas we laughed for days and he painted my nails. To quit smoking I imagined I was Eleanor of Acquitaine gathering troubadors in the 12th century. Once one of my babysitters told me I shouldn't talk about my babysitters because I'd never be taken seriously if I did. Then he said the first definition of pedophile is one who loves children and I ran and ran. I remember freaking out one of my babysitters by showing him how the mobile of a flasher that my sister sent us worked. My favorite babysitter bit the back of the rat who bit her back, scattering the thirty other rats on her back. Then she taught me how to hurl circles.





ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
photo

Anselm Berrigan was born on August 14, 1972, in Chicago. He is the
author of two books of poetry, Integrity & Dramatic Life (Edge Books, 1999)
and Zero Star Hotel (Edge, forthcoming this summer). His poems have appeared
in recent issues of Open City, Milk.com, and Enough.

©2002

Anselm Berrigan and Nerve.com

Commentarium (16 Comments)

May 21 02 - 1:23pm
mcg

now THAT's poetry that r-a-w rocks! thanks very-very much, for a change;)

May 21 02 - 3:26pm
rt

mindblowing. one of the most inspired poems i've ever read on nerve.

May 21 02 - 7:23pm
cb

yeah! like this one best too! I don't know why, probably because it's written really well? It has more words than the rest? its rectangular-shaped block?

May 21 02 - 8:17pm
D.F.

Tasty, twisted fun & freaky... my babysitters don't compare.

May 21 02 - 8:43pm
an

I liked it too, and Anselm is hot. I love those Chicago boys.

May 22 02 - 11:25am
lhc

Wow. I was just blown away - by how bad that poem is. It was truely horrible. It hit me in the same way a bad piece of junk mail affects me: I feel bad that somebody actually took the time to design and mail me something so worthless, and even spent 17.9 cents towards the effort. How horrified those pennies must feel to be associated with such a worthless endevor.
I think this particular style has no future. Insert quarter and twist the knob, perhaps the next fortune to be delivered into your hands will give you better ideas. lever again.

May 22 02 - 1:23am
bk1

i thought this 'poem' sucked hardcore. as i read it i was thinking, 'huh? what the f*ck is this?' nothing fits together, theres no cohesive imagery, and just because a word is used over and over again within the same gaggle of words, (in this case, 'babysitter'), doesnt make it a poem. nawww, this doesnt work at all - try again, brother.

May 22 02 - 10:52am
I.H.

Rash! (not that it gives me a rash, but that it has that edgy honest insightful been-hurt-got-through-it-...-now these words as poetry..- quality/sense/feel/voice to it. I like this work, and shall look for more by this author)
...that is my positive critique, as for any negative, well, not right now, but give me time, I'm sure that there is something incisively critical that I could come up with, if I wanted to, but I don't want to, maybe that shows us something that could serve as either the ennui or shortcoming of this critic, or the writer, ...?
Tell Alselm Berrigan that I met him briefly in Paris about nine years ago, or so, and that he told me he was either living in, or going to Cuny Purchase ( why does that sound like purchasing Cunny?) he can reach me at fmpoets@msn.com and I invite that communication to take place.

May 22 02 - 4:01pm
xxx

oh boy. this poem did not "suck hardcore" as one reader so thoughtfully suggested. rather, it is funny & neat. i'm looking forward to the new book; it should be pretty awesome. word!

May 23 02 - 8:37pm
RG

Anselm is a genius.

May 29 02 - 12:02pm
ds

1 sick fuckin' freak

Jun 27 02 - 4:33pm
CAC

Anselm proves once again.
um. well. i'm not exactly
SURE what now. but he
proves it nonetheless!
and i'm happy for it!

Jun 27 02 - 4:42pm
FS

The naked guy poet pictures are floating around Philly, stolen for fluff-study purposes. History. Poetry. Now.

Apr 28 03 - 12:42am

This is great rant. Poetry?

Sep 07 11 - 6:25am
Cialis Rezeptfrei

ILr13h Thanks for all the answers:) In fact, learned a lot of new information. Dut I just didn`t figure out what is what till the end...

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