for Franklin KR O’Hara Cline

I was walking in Midtown the other day thinking
about the time I was at a party at John Ashbery’s house.

It was two weeks after we had beers
at James Schuyler’s room in the Chelsea
Hotel. The streets were paved

with honey and water and so much pain.
I remember it well—that night we stammered
Gramercy and thought fondly of our wrestling
mania at school and had a few drinks.

I remember it well, you know, like having a Kenneth Koch
with you. It was refreshing.

And I thought to myself
the horse is not really like a veil,
Alice is not leaving; not really going to turn up.

The buildings all became memories
and memories were replaced by conduits
and condos even faster. It was June, maybe May.
There were lilacs growing in our ears

and the rain turned into a sad kind
of confetti, you know, like the kind

at a party at John Ashbery’s house.

Peter Burzyński, PhD (he/they) is the author of the chapbook A Year Alone inside of Woodland Pattern (Adjunct Press, 2022) as well as the co-poet of the obverse periodical DuetDuet Vol. 7. (pitymilk press, 2023). His first full-length book of poetry, Infinite Zero, will be published in 2024 by Writ Large Press. In Fall 2023 Burzyński will serve as a Postdoctoral Fulbright Scholar in the Slovak Republic. He is the son of immigrants who call him on the phone every day.