30 One-Liners
By Joe Brainard
WINTER
More time is spent at the window.
SUMMER
You go along from day to day with summer all around you.
STORES
Stores tell all about people who live in the area.
WRITING
Others have already written what I would like to write.
TODAY
Today the sky is so blue it burns.
IN THE COUNTRY
In the country one can almost hear the silence.
THE FOUR SEASONS
The four seasons of the year permit us to enjoy things.
RECIPE
Smear each side of a pork chop with mustard and dredge in
flour.
BOOK WORM
Have always had nose stuck in book from little on.
THAT FEELING
What defines that feeling one has when gazing at a rock?
COSTA RICA
It was in Costa Rica I saw my first coffee plantation.
HAPPINESS
Happiness is nothing more than a state of mind.
MONEY
Money will buy a fine dog.
OUR GOVERNMENT
A new program is being introduced by our government.
EDWARD
On the whole he is a beautiful human being.
LAKE
A lake attracts a man and wife and members of a family.
THE SKY
We see so many different things when we look at the sky.
A SEXY THOUGHT
Male early in the day.
POTATOES
One can only go so far without potatoes in the kitchen.
MOTHER
A mother is something we have all had.
MODERN TIMES
Every four minutes a car comes off the assembly line they say.
THE OCEAN
Foamy waves wash to shore "treasures" as a sacrifice to damp
sand.
TODAY
High density housing is going on all around us.
REAL LIFE
I could have screamed the day John proposed winterizing
the cottage and living there permanently.
ALASKA
I am a very cold person here.
THE YEAR OF THE WHITE MAN
The year of the white man was a year of many beads.
LOYALTY
Loyalty, I feel, is a very big word.
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
Perhaps in our mad scramble to keep our heads above water
we miss the point.
HUMAN NATURE
Why must we be so intent on destroying everything we
touch?
COMPANY
Winifred was a little relieved when they were gone.
Joe Brainard, "30 One-Liners" from The Collected Writings of Joe Brainard. Copyright © 2012 by Joe Brainard. Reprinted by permission of The Library of America.
Source:
The Collected Writings of Joe Brainard
(Library of America, 2012)