I read a lot of David Berman here. This won’t come as a surprise to some. By a lot of David Berman I mean Actual Air, rereading "Classic Water" or "Self-Portrait at 28" and discovering the ones I used to pass over, like "The War in Apartment 1812." I told a cab driver I was from London yesterday, and learned what he had to say of London - "number one" - and then I fumbled something in Arabic about London and Cairo both being very large cities. But usually I learn more about Cairo and Egypt here talking to people than I do about the places I tell them I’m from, unlike this bit from "Self-Portrait at 28."
"It’s one of the little disappointments
that makes you think about getting away,
going to Holly Springs or Coral Gables
and taking a room on the square
with a landlady whose hands are scored
by disinfectant, telling the people you meet
that you are from Alaska, and listen
to what they have to say about Alaska
until you have learned much more about Alaska
than you ever will about Holly Springs or Coral Gables."
Those little disappointments are absent here, then. But I’ll keep telling people I’m from London, or Toronto, or maybe just Boston or New York, to see what I can learn.
