TESTS FOR LOVERS
"Now try another test. Find an empty stretch of floor near a wall. Close your eyes and slowly walk toward the wall, repeating the word "hello." —Eric Schwitzgebel, Perplexities of Consciousness
Dial his number and hang up immediately.
Wait ten minutes, and if he has not called back,
assume the worst. Then defrost the lamb
and call him again. Say the first word
that pops into your head. If it begins with a G
he has been untrue.
Walk her dog, blindfold it
and abandon it downtown.
Take your pulse. If it is
above 75, propose marriage.
Sing as loud as you can,
and wait for the echo.
If it is her voice you hear,
build a city where you stand.
Take a bus to the canyon, get out and walk
to the edge. Now take five giant steps.
Trust me. If you love me,
you will not fall.
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SIEGFRIED MORTKOWITZ works as a free-lance journalist and lives in Prague. His work has appeared in Brown’s Window, After Hours and a nameless (and now defunct) German magazine in the form of a box (which contained the loose pages). After Hours Press has just published his first chapbook, Eating Brains and Other Poems.
Read an essay by Siegfried Mortkowitz on Frank O’Hara’s great poem “The Day Lady Died” in B O D Y