Eugene Ostashevsky

FEATURED WORK
• The Chow Family
• My Brother, the Rock Star
• A Midsummer Night’s Elephant
• The Book of Pets

The Chow Family

Mr Chow lies on a cot
underneath which slither the sibilant

wolves of history
He feels he is a cat

about to be devoured by Mrs Chow
who feels she is a dog

Their children
take air on the balcony

One child says to another,
History is a mirror

The other child answers,
I do not understand

They have erected a wall
around themselves and over themselves

and it accompanies them invisibly
as they locomote to the mall

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My Brother, the Rock Star

1.
My brother is a rock star
He’s big in Japan

The sound of his guitar
Is so lonely and lonely

2.
He lives in Las Vegas
Without state income tax

He pins notes to his corkboard
With multicolored tacks

3.
Red is for URGENT
Green is FOREGO

Yellow is APPOINTMENTS
Blue is for LONELY

4.
Dear me, I am lonely
Although the Japanese know me

Although the Japanese know me
They don’t even know me

5.
I live in Las Vegas
I’m thirty-five years old

Where is my high school metal band?
How did this happen?

6.
Every several months
He visits Japan

To play music before
His adoring fans

7.
To witness first-hand
Those superfast trains

Watch triangles of cranes
Above Tokyo!

8.
He sings, I’m so lonely
So lonely and lonely

Is this what I dreamt of
This only and only?

9.
My brother is a rock star
He lives in Las Vegas

He calls me at night
To say, It’s this only

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A Midsummer Night’s Elephant

Enter Duke Theseus and Hippolita. From the other side of the stage, enter the Elephant.

A. To Emma on her Pregnancy

Like a September third-grader
who walks into math class with a widening eye,
You have increased
and soon you will multiply.


B. Lines on a Circumcision

You’re eight days old,
A piece of you shall be lopped off today. O, Isaac!
Believe me, this is just the tip
Of the iceberg.

C. The Awakening of the Self

“I’m Little Pete,”
Little Pete keeps repeating.

Shut up, Little Pete,
Or I’ll give you a beating!


D.
The horrible hooligan Sam
spread peanut butter on ham

threw on herring, Velveeta,
oranges, pita

and danced in the street and
cried
What a disgusting eater
I am I am I am!


E.
Lionel Lot
tied his snot in a knot

a big, green, slimy knot
of stickable snot!


F.
A four-eyed felon
stole a green melon.

In vain is the sheriff
biking, running and rowing:
The felon is four-eyed:
he knows where he’s going!


G.
It was raining cats and dogs.
I ran in a rainproof raiment.

A cat so fat fell on my head,
That I fell on the pavement.


H. The Smile of the Anaconda

The jocund anaconda
Inspires wonder:

She sleeps under a comforter
Made from Carry the Condor!


I.
Labrador Jack
Took a dump in the back.

A kick and a smack
Await labrador Jack.


J.
The surfing bird
Hit a turd.

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