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Attis
Though your death spites us --it is unjust
--whom can we return to earth through our grief?
more, if we groan deeply enough to shake
the branches, deeply enough to drop leaves
before autumn, the torrent would not breach
the god's pine heart encasing you,-- nor would
our pleas entice the total inventory
of dreams you dreamed,-- for you were alone
with thoughts bound to you, and we can't enter
them now,-- we never could --but, no matter,
our grief will always be self-regarding
--who we return from death is ourselves, once
isolated from each other and once
fastidious about others' suffering.
Now, we suffer as your spirit loses
us,-- it gains itself --it murmurs to us.
Appliance
it isn't the lack or the fact that the appliance
is always a dud:-- it's more the whim of movement
we miss when every ripple must be muscled
through our brain:-- though some might enjoy
an arm that whines or rattles,-- sinews and marrow
strung on plastic harder than diamond but more
flexible, pliant,-- reach up to tie and reach down
to fold then reach out to tear purse cup smash
burrow tunnel and set squibs run run run BLO
Populus vult decipi, decipiatur
this ice cream store
in Falls Church murders me
buries Mr. Bones
the Giant Music next door
scars and flies
then hums over Gentle Giant
Spinal Tap at the cinema
covers the ochre mounds
what drawn blood
serves both as sacrifice
and suicide
Unspeakable Hemingway Via Mailer
Would it really
be so wrong
if the matador
fugged the bull
instead?
Comfort of Strangers
Where the Minotaur and Theseus fall
for each other
and build an Equity theatre
over the labyrinth
with Ariadne as artistic director
and her husband Dionysus
as stagedoor booty.
Épater le bourgeois
Your corn dog Is my froggy bottom
Your rope swing Is my roped Woden
Your mysterium My misery
Your cul de sac My Myo-Pic
Deli stick Pimpled prick
Cinnamon goo Monstrous poo
Leftover cheese whiz Puffed-up book biz
Menial boys Custard girls
Roller skates Date rapes
Life work Cape Town jerk
Faculty senate Whim-ends benefit
Ostracized Beagle's eyes
Mumbai call center Hartford street walker
Wallace Stevens Beaver Cleaver
Sword swallower Cock biter
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