You Don't Want To Do

Then One Day My Sister Abandoned Me At The 1939 World's Fair, And That Incident Is The Essence Of In The Night Kitchen. I Was Standing There With Hundreds Of Other People Waving Back At The Little Midgets Dressed Like Bakers When I Turned Around And My Sister Was Gone! The Next Thing I Know I'm Screaming And Crying And Policemen Are Taking Me To A Big Place With Tons Of Kids Who Had All Been Abandoned Like Me. At Least I Was Old Enough To Give Them A Name And An Address.

I Remember How Much - When I Was A Small Boy I Was Taken To See A Version Of 'peter Pan.' I Detested It. I Mean, The Sentimental Idea That Anybody Would Want To Remain A Boy.

I'm Writing A Poem Right Now About A Nose. I've Always Wanted To Write A Poem About A Nose. But It's A Ludicrous Subject. That's Why, When I Was Younger, I Was Afraid Of [writing] Something That Didn't Make A Lot Of Sense. But Now I'm Not. I Have Nothing To Worry About. It Doesn't Matter.

I Think It Is Unnatural To Think That There Is Such A Thing As A Blue-sky, White-clouded Happy Childhood For Anybody. Childhood Is A Very, Very Tricky Business Of Surviving It. Because If One Thing Goes Wrong Or Anything Goes Wrong, And Usually Something Goes Wrong, Then You Are Compromised As A Human Being. You're Going To Trip Over That For A Good Part Of Your Life.

My Father Belonged To A Jewish Social Club.