American Dream

A Conversation with David Foster Wallace

I can only really talk about America
because it’s really all that I know—
a country of contradictions, torn
between a very aggressive form
of capitalism & a kind of moral
or civic impulse. Ugggggghhhhh.

what i mean is that i lost focus & instead

applied to grad school & cut my hair

blue because i could be my own at last

& i’m salivating now wondering

what would pavlov think about arousal

in seeing yourself reflected in a bald man’s scalp