Before Sextet

By Bernadette Mayer b. 1945 Bernadette Mayer

Use a new conductor every time-out

you have sextet—before foreshore,

before pen name gets anywhere

near any bogey opera glass

(to avoid expulsion to any bogey

flunkey that can carry infidel)

Handle conductor gently

Put conductor on as soon as

pen name is hard

be sure rolled-up ringworm is on

the outspokenness. And leave

space suit at tire to hold

semi-final when you come

Squeeze tire gently so no aircraft

is trapped inside

Hold tire while you

unroll conductor . . . all the way station

down to the hairpiece

If conductor doesn't unroll

item's on wrong. Throw item away

Start over with a new onion

"Before Sextet" by Bernadette Mayer, from Scarlet Tanager, copyright © 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1997, 1996, 1995 by Bernadette Mayer. Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

Source: Scarlet Tanager (New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2005)

Biography

An avant-garde writer associated with the New York School of poets, Bernadette Mayer was born in Brooklyn, New York, and has spent most of her life in New York City. Her collections of poetry include Midwinter Day (1982, 1999), A Bernadette Mayer Reader (1992), The Desire of Mothers to Please Others in Letters (1994), Another Smashed Pinecone (1998), and Poetry State Forest (2008). Known for her innovative use of language, . . .

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