Bernadette Mayer's potty mouth

On the Poetry Foundation "Poetry Off the Shelf" podcast, they talked about the poetry of Bernadette Mayer (b. 1945.) She's an avant-garde poet and artist. Apparently, she's been compared to 20th century titans from Gertrude Stein to James Joyce. She's well loved especially by younger poets for her experimentation.

I really liked this poem which was written in 1968 but you'd never know it:

[Sonnet] You jerk you didn't call me up

By Bernadette Mayer

You jerk you didn't call me up

I haven't seen you in so long

You probably have a fucking tan

& besides that instead of making love tonight

You're drinking your parents to the airport

I'm through with you bourgeois boys

All you ever do is go back to ancestral comforts

Only money can get—even Catullus was rich but

Nowadays you guys settle for a couch

By a soporific color cable t.v. set

Instead of any arc of love, no wonder

The G.I. Joe team blows it every other time

Wake up! It's the middle of the night

You can either make love or die at the hands of

                               the Cobra Commander

_________________

To make love, turn to page 121.

To die, turn to page 172.