XV and LIX from "The Sonnets" by Ted Berrigan

XV


In Joe Brainard's collage its white arrow
He is not in it, the hungry dead doctor.
Of Marilyn Monroe, her white teeth white-
I am truly horribly upset because Marilyn
and ate King Kong popcorn," he wrote in his
of glass in Joe Brainard's collage
Doctor, but they say "I LOVE YOU"
and the sonnet is not dead.
takes the eye away from the gray words,
Diary.  The black heart beside the fifteen pieces
Monroe died, so I went to a matinee B-movie
washed by Joe's throbbing hands.  "Today
What is in it is sixteen ripped pictures
does not point to William Carlos Williams.


LIX


In Joe Brainard's collage its white arrow
does not point to William Carlos Williams.
He is not in it, the hungry dead doctor.
What is in it is sixteen ripped pictures
Of Marilyn Monroe, her white teeth white-
washed by Joe's throbbing hands.  "Today
I am truly horribly upset because Marilyn
Monroe died, so I went to a matinee B-movie
and ate King Kong popcorn," he wrote in his
Diary.  The black heart beside the fifteen pieces
of glass in Joe Brainard's collage
takes the eye away from the gray words,
Doctor, but they say "I LOVE YOU"
and the sonnet is not dead.



Source of the text - Ted Berrigan, The Sonnets.  New York: Penguin Books, 2000, pp. 14, 54.

Bourguignomicon: The same sonnet-collage twice: in sixteen ripped pictures; then, the thing itself, a little machine focused on what’s in it and what’s not.