after the old man

life-line man

who surely knew too much about allergies, told me when I was into my teens:

“here now, I’ve been practicing in Clifton all these years you remember me since you were five years old-now I wouldn’t recognize you and your beard on the street, of course, but what can I say to you after let me check your records…nine and a half years…I still maintain today what I’ve always contested: the last time to drink milk should be after a mother’s breast runs dry…

“and there’s no such thing as organic or inorganic foods- the only categories are meat, potatoes, and jelly jam, I swear your attendance here has been so irregular (where have you been?) it’s a wonder you have that much hair all over your head and face…”

well I just knew he was a "learned" man, saying Dr. William Carlos Williams wasn’t much of a medical man because of his ‘neurotic literature’ but could i send him a copy of “Paterson”, as if he knew Williams was so responsible for much of the great Poetry of Dharma Beat days and Allen’s development…

and so to translate his predictions regarding my future: “there’ll be no more chocolate or cowmilk or eggs of any sort or chicken for that matter”, and I have to again become a “conservative food user”, all this spiel for $25 in conservative hard earned cash.

2/20/73

Clifton, NJ