Barbershop

Up very betimes and walked (my boy with me) to Mr. Cole’s, and after long waiting below, he being under the barber’s hands, I spoke with him, and he did give me much hopes of getting my debt that my brother owed me, and also that things would go well with my father. But going to his attorney’s, that he directed me to, they tell me both that though I could bring my father to a confession of a judgment, yet he knowing that there are specialties out against him he is bound to plead his knowledge of them to me before he pays me, or else he must do it in his own wrong. I took a great deal of pains this morning in the thorough understanding hereof, and hope that I know the truth of our case, though it be but bad, yet better than to run spending money and all to no purpose. However, I will inquire a little more.
Walked home, doing very many errands by the way to my great content, and at the ‘Change met and spoke with several persons about serving us with pieces of eight at Tangier. So home to dinner above stairs, my wife not being well of those in bed. I dined by her bedside, but I got her to rise and abroad with me by coach to Bartholomew Fayre, and our boy with us, and there shewed them and myself the dancing on the ropes, and several other the best shows; but pretty it is to see how our boy carries himself so innocently clownish as would make one laugh. Here till late and dark, then up and down, to buy combes for my wife to give her mayds, and then by coach home, and there at the office set down my day’s work, and then home to bed.

under the barber’s hands
I would go to confession

under those dancing combs
I set down my day


Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Friday 2 September 1664.

Vivisection

A sad rainy night, up and to the office, where busy all the morning. At noon to the ‘Change and thence brought Mr. Pierce, the Surgeon, and Creed, and dined very merry and handsomely; but my wife not being well of those she not with us; and we cut up the great cake Moorcocke lately sent us, which is very good. They gone I to my office, and there very busy till late at night, and so home to supper and to bed.

sad rainy night—
the surgeon hands us
a cut-up cake


Erasure haiku derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Thursday 1 September 1664.

Tests for sainthood

When the saints still lived
in their previous lives, ordinary

mortals just like us, they did not know
how someday the faithful would fight

for a scrap of their clothing to pin
to undergarments, or press their faces

to glass under which their remains lie
undisturbed as the very day they died.

So I am beginning to collect fragments
that might tell a kind of story of your life

though I don’t know all of it: yellowed sheets
of piano music, a picture where you stand

on the balcony overlooking a crater lake.
The slender curve of your neck, your finely

carved cheekbones, how you told me once your waist
was a size nineteen when you were my age. Though I

might fast or count mouthfuls of water and bread,
I could never hope to emulate that example.

Even so, I practice hunting the sweet, buttery thread
running through every vein of bitter green. I try

not to shudder at the thought of rodents
coming out of the floorboards at night

when the world thinks we are sleeping; how
instead of casting them out you name them

señorita, let them sink their teeth into
loaves of bread, into garments made of lace.

What the smallest thing could hold

After the last storm passes,
I find on the deck chair a baby

bell pepper felled by the wind.
It’s shaped like a heart: small

as maybe the heart of a chicken
or something that tried to grow

but stopped short at the limits
set by a body. A friend jokes:

Sell it on eBay— where a price
can be put on a piece of cheese toast

freckled with the silhouette of the Virgin
Mary, or a guinea pig’s miniature suit

of armor and helmet? In 2000, eight people
placed bids for the meaning of life

that a seller claimed to have discovered.
Inside this waxy hollow, how much

would we pay for that kind of promise
inscribed on each of its seeds? Across

the water, another storm spreads
its widest skirts. We look at each other

and wonder how much we could gather
into just one small suitcase each.

Student days

Up by five o’clock and to my office, where T. Hater and Will met me, and so we dispatched a great deal of my business as to the ordering my papers and books which were behindhand. All the morning very busy at my office. At noon home to dinner, and there my wife hath got me some pretty good oysters, which is very soon and the soonest, I think, I ever eat any. After dinner I up to hear my boy play upon a lute, which I have this day borrowed of Mr. Hunt; and indeed the boy would, with little practice, play very well upon the lute, which pleases me well. So by coach to the Tangier Committee, and there have another small business by which I may get a little small matter of money. Staid but little there, and so home and to my office, where late casting up my monthly accounts, and, blessed be God! find myself worth 1020l., which is still the most I ever was worth. So home and to bed. Prince Rupert I hear this day is to go to command this fleete going to Guinny against the Dutch. I doubt few will be pleased with his going, being accounted an unhappy man. My mind at good rest, only my father’s troubles with Dr. Pepys and my brother Tom’s creditors in general do trouble me. I have got a new boy that understands musique well, as coming to me from the King’s Chappell, and I hope will prove a good boy, and my wife and I are upon having a woman, which for her content I am contented to venture upon the charge of again, and she is one that our Will finds out for us, and understands a little musique, and I think will please us well, only her friends live too near us. Pretty well in health, since I left off wearing of a gowne within doors all day, and then go out with my legs into the cold, which brought me daily pain.

books were my oysters
and with little money

I was content to wear a gown
indoors all day

and go out with my legs
into the cold


Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Wednesday 31 August 1664.

Vacancies

Up and to the office, where sat long, and at noon to dinner at home; after dinner comes Mr. Pen to visit me, and staid an houre talking with me. I perceive something of learning he hath got, but a great deale, if not too much, of the vanity of the French garbe and affected manner of speech and gait. I fear all real profit he hath made of his travel will signify little. So, he gone, I to my office and there very busy till late at night, and so home to supper and to bed.

where to sit
in the garb and gait of travel—
sign busy till late


Erasure haiku derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Tuesday 30 August 1664.