|
Do Something
figure of a man
shadow against the Fens
not a figure of race
but a nightmare standing
against the background
lit by a street lamp
poised as if to run
Solution
You are the solve-it-all.
You were hired to help
not to slow things up.
You work here. Here.
The reason, you were hired.
You weren't hired to teach.
You were hired to make
the rest of us look good.
You speak for all of us
when you solve it all:
you know this isn't real.
The reason you were hired
--to slow things up.
Passport
Someone in authority
whom you seldom
see can take
on the aspects
of notoriety
in dream
or recollection
and look
a little
like a movie star.
All My Clothes
All my
clothes
have
other
people's
names
on them.
Stesichorus
Blinded for Helen's slander,
abandoned in this ravine,
my knife held at my throat--
O, that it were given to us to put
our words back in our own mouths,
to close those ears that heard us--
Delicate Helen forgive me for fingering
your fate as though one could stop
one's loins from spreading in flight--
Not my fault either to peg you,
as Tyndareus erred not you--
He shunned Aphrodite--you paid.
Take away my blade, and I promise
to spray goodwill over Sicily
and bend truth to fit your tresses.
Pindar
Clods choke my songs who hop
hither and thither like
olives down Keos' slopes.
Damn these lines, too--damn you,
Corinna: My sack will
sow you to and fro till
your hands give over me.
Jocko Dillis
climbed out of his space corvette
and stood upon Pluto for the first time.
Cold, damn cold, he thought.
Jocko switched on his eyeballs--
the darkness of Pluto became greenish
dark instead of black dark.
He could discern vague shapes at first,
then realistic objects like rocks, dumpsters,
and his second-form tutor, Sister Esmeralda.
|
