The Long Necked Bottle

Produced by Sorour Imani.







  The Long Necked Bottle

  Paul Cameron Browne

  Illustrated by Jon Vlakos


  Swamp Press Mcmlxxx


  Copyright Paul Cameron Brown



  The River Cuts A Channel

  People with money but no fortune
  or stomach for the life of an albatross,
  watch him soar on self-made wings,
  fetch the dingy redness
  of morning's first catch with
  a long necked bottle
  he calls the captain



  Chinatown-I

  As they are crawling up to you
  think of Angor Wat
  the sweating walls
  cold in stone
  steam broiling in the jungle;
  or, that most ancient of men,
  the Chinese beggar
  the thin rinds of his skin
  like scented apples or
  kimonos slipped off to dry



  Clandestine Operation

  The most appropriate comment,
  besides pig knuckles on racks
  & rabbits skewered on prongs
  or the Chinese lettering
  playing tricks with your Occidental eyes,
  is the Breakfast at Tiffany's
  approach to suffering--
  that ambience of egg rolls
  & fortune cookies dashed aside with
  mild dosages of rose-petal tea
  amid such trappings and parodies
  of the human experiment left stammering
  in the too crowded sun



  Colophon

  This little volume
  was hand set in
  Kennerley monotype
  printed on Gutenberg Laid in
  an edition of 200 hardcover & 150 soft-cover copies.
  This is copy 223. For those who wonder, Angor
  Wat is the lost civilization
  of Cambodia. May 28
  Oneonta, New York
  ER JM

  The End







End of Project Gutenberg's The Long Necked Bottle, by Paul Cameron Brown