As/Is







8.26.2004


Two from Walmart series:

The one facing and the one lurking
are almost impossible to read,
on the surface flat as formal innovation
and the metonym Silence. The other

three are haunted by spectres
or the passing of gas. Such chatter

as only mice or men will make
among a pack of wolves
or an unmarried woman.







Wallflower, I think

therefore I love you

humiliated by my disguises --
the masks of Sorrow,

Babel,

Anonymity, and Gomorrah.

Your style has a manliness about it
up to your cauliflower ears
and hollow as a pumpkin smashed
and splattered by big teenage boys
on little Cinderella's slippers
on her first trick or treat.