In another life I was Pessoa
though they called me
Roberto the Rose peddler,

they gave me trinkets
for my poems, took
them for forgiveness.

In this dream, we are
in the kitchen together
eating each other�s plums

and pinning WCW
to the refrigerator.
You say it�s not real,

we�re just overgrown actors
and that Brazilian Portuguese
is really drunken Spanish.

And we slur and we slur
down the boulevard of ao, ao
grab a rose from the lapel

of Gertrude Stein as she wrestles
with Hemingway over the rights
to do the first literary beer commercial.

A beer is a beer is a beer!
A clean well-chilled glass!
A beer is a beer is a beer!

Nada y nada y nada y your
mama dressed you in women�s
clothes! Your mama was a man!

We stop at the wonderstruck eyes
of William James as he samples
different types of cheeses for his

book: Varieties of Religious Experience.
Hear the litany of the nuns as they
shed their old habits:

The Abondance (shoes), the Beaufort (knickers),
the Blue d�Auvergne (skin), the Brie de Melun (yes)
Don�t forget this time, Roberto.



�2006 by Ray Sweatman