Onion
Onion is the first book of Pines work with images by Black Mountain painter Basil King published in 1971 by Mulch Press. Mulch went on to publish books by Allan Ginsberg, Joel Oppenheimer, Toby Olson, Michael Stephens and Paul Blackburn. This last poet, Paul Blackburn, was a friend and mentor to Pines, who even now grieves his early death, at the age of forty-five, on September 13, 1971, the year this book was published.
CHANNEL FEVER
First Henry Leghorn the baker wearing white shoes
Comes up to me on deck and says, We're really down.
Here, man, you dig what I'm telling you? Then
The chief cook with a rag tied around his head
Pipes up, We stick together man, go out, get drunk
Together, make whores and everything man together.
Then the rivers of the world start leading out
As well as in & oil and graphite from the engine
Room are igniting in my lungs & I'm leaning on
The rail watching our screws kicking up suds
& the galley man from Gulfport Mississippi suggests
someone's adding bluing to the mothafucking sea
