Issue Four

"I admit that beauty inhales me but not that I inhale beauty" – Felix Bernstein

"My lack of nothingness" – the Genii in the candy store

A black man waiting at a bus stop
A white woman sitting on a stool
A Philippino eating a potato
A Mexican boy putting on shoes
A Hindu hiding in Igloo
A fat girl in blue blouse
A Christian lady with toupee
A Chinese mother walking across a bridge
A Pakistani eating pastrami
A provincial walking on the peninsula
A Eurasian boy on a cell phone
An Arab with umbrella
A Southerner taking off a backpack
An Italian detonating a land line
A barbarian with beret
A Lebanese guy in limousine
A Jew watering petunias
A Yugoslavian man at a hanging
A Sunni boy on scooter
A Floridian climbing a fountain
A Beatnik writing a limerick
A Caucasian woman dreaming of indecision
A Puerto Rican child floating on a balloon
An Indian fellow gliding on three-wheeled bike
An Armenian rowing to Amenia
An Irish lad with scythe
A Bangladeshi muttering questions
A worker wading in puddles
A Japanese rollerblader fixing a blend
A Burmese tailor watching his trailer
An Idaho man getting a tan
A Quinopac girl with a bluesy drawl
An Arapahoe whaler skimming failure
An anorexic man with a remarkably deep tan
An adolescent Muslim writing terza rima
A Scots pipe fitter at the automat
A gay guy in tweed boat
A red man with green ball
A dyslexic sailor with an inconsolable grin
A Northumbrian flier heading for Tipperary
A Buddhist financier falling to ground
A curious old boy jumping into threshing machine
An Hispanic sergeant on lookout for a cream-colored coat
An addicted haberdasher eating soap
A Peruvian child chewing gum
A Sephardic infant on shuffleboard deck
A Mongolian imitating Napoleon
An anarchist lad with skewed glance
A Latvian miner break dancing with the coroner
A poor girl eating apple pie and cream soda
A Sudanese fellow with a yellow stroller
An atheist with a flare for pins
A Bahamanian on the way to inordinate machination
A stuttering Iranian in blue and gold fog
A tell-tale somnambulist rehearsing Gypsy
A homosexual child in a taxi
A Wiccan matron swimming in glue
A Moravian procrastinator practicing jujitsu
A Syrian swami on Lake Oragami
A flirtatious gentleman spinning wool
A colored youngster admiring a toaster
An Ojibwa pushing a button on the Trans-Siberian
A harried officer somersaulting on banister
A moldy Whig directing catfish
An agoraphobic professor on cruise control
A feminist in a rocking chair
A Burmese cook in bobby socks
A teenager infiltrating an air mattress
A pro-choice guy reciting rimes
A dog-faced Dane in shining car
A Pentecostal lawyer jogging in his foyer
A communist wearing a sad apron
A Canadian woman with a nose ring
A ghoulish girl dating a dentist
An idiot in a closet
A Moorish magician in her kitchen
A sorrowful soldier with a morose clothier
A dilettantish senior washing strictures
A socialite on routine imbroglio
A bicyclist hoarding hornets
A toddler pocketing the till
A hooded boy eating cheddar cheese
A balding brownnoser in tutu
A brunette chasing choo-choo train
An Argentine dancing on a dime
A bespeckled dowager installing Laplink
An australopithecine toddler grimacing in basement
A Nicaraguan pee-wee with preposterous pipe
A kike out cold on ice
A Hoosier off the booze
A swollen man with an impecunious grin
A Burmese fellow with face of terror
A lost poll in the forest
A dilapidated soul drinking rum
A pistolero with folded heart
A Shockwave momma hunkering down on puck
A vellobound baby two-facing the cha-cha
A postcolonial fiduciary eating a plumb
A maladroit Swede coughing bullets
A hexed Haitian on involuntary vacation
A Persian onconologist in metrical parking
A Peruvian French hornist shipping Pernod
A Terra Haute charmer with infinite capacity to harm her
A Mongolian chiropodist at a potluck
A São Paulo poet reflecting on deflection
A white man sitting on stool
A black woman waiting at bus stop

Charles Bernstein believes that “art is not made of essences but of husks.” He is the David Gray Professor of Poetry and Letters and Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Buffalo. He also directs the Poetics Program.

His latest book, With Strings (University of Chicago Press) is available
at Talking Leaves Bookstore www.talkingleaves.com