Two Poems

I.

There was one book he

Still hadn’t read

Ubu Roi

John Berryman said.

I wonder why?

It’s not that long

But so he says

In his Dream Songs.

Perhaps the French

Serves to disguise

The fact the play

Is pocket-sized.

II. 

He also called

Poor Iowa the

Worst state in

The nation.

I guess there is

A lot of corn

But why is that

A cause for indignation?

Added later, on 3/3/24:

III. 

In a bookstore last week, I saw a spine

With an allusive title; I knew the line

It came from one 

    of Berryman's poems

"No one is ever missing," 

    it intoned

Proud of myself, that I had remembered

But then—the poem's about someone 

    being dismembered

With a theme like that 

    so stark and chilling 

No wonder, in memory, 

    it gets top billing