RANDOM
PARTICLES:
QUESTIONS
HIDDEN IN THE RYE
for Holden Caulfield and the recipients
of the Nobel Prize in Physics
Why does nobody keep answering?
Won’t you open your pores all the way
and let Mother Nature take care of you like she does the fish in the frozen
lakes?
How come ice isn't easily ignored?
Where have the ducks gone?
Let’s be as skinny as skaters, shall we?
Will you say with me out loud at the same time: "Any interest in eating herring?"
Want to get your bike and meet me under
a big clock in the sky?
How can we look in mirrors without
getting old?
If you hem then why wouldn’t you haw?
I got a big bang out of that, did you?
What is it about late night laughter on
the streets of New York City that is so terrible?
Where on a checkerboard does a teardrop
fall?
Where is there a green dress hanging?
Why aren’t pianos played from closets?
Why not be a goddam spendthrift, ‘cause
what you don’t spend you’ll lose, right?
Don’t all good ideas begin as premature
calculations?
Disciples are picked at random, isn’t
that what Jesus would say?
Why is everybody all dressed up on Sunday?
Why would anyone murder Mercutio?
Two chairs outside a goddam
infirmary–which is the one to sit in?
Why can’t all songs be sung in a
Dixieland manner or in a whorehousey way?
Why does it seem sometimes like there
is really nothing else to do but go to the movies?
And why do actors never act like real
people though they think they do?
Who are the king and queen of the
phonies?
Why is the best part of Hamlet when he
pets his dog on the head?
Do you ever get gooseflesh for no good
reason?
How can Christmas really be coming soon
when it doesn’t feel like anything is
coming?
If you put a skate key in my hand
many years from now, in the pitch of night, do you think I'll still know what it is?
Do you want to know the truth?
Why, sometimes, does it smell inside
like it is raining outside, but it’s not?
What is it about museums that makes
people whisper?
Who is that man in the back of the canoe
looking like a witch doctor in his spooky mask?
Gasoline rainbows in puddles in the
street…why can’t I tell you what they mean?
Why can’t the things that should be
left alone all be put in a glass case somewhere and really be left alone?
If I ever succeed in saying what it is I am
trying to say, will you believe that I meant what I said?
Will you remember to give me a
cigarette while I am bleeding?
What the hell do we do with our
suitcases while we’re here?
Will you hail a taxi when it’s time?
Will you catch me when I fall?
