Love brought
me a handful
of pussy willows to place
near my face. A sick head
and a sick heart ought be licked
back to health, said said Love,
all stealth. All stick and cue. Love,
didn't I tell you, not to foot
over threshold of mine? But
Love was over, Love was under.
Love was in. Love was wrought.
Love swept the house, then, Love was
done. Aye, There's the rub!
The phoenix and the turtle
dove? Ha! Love, Love is
nought.
'Tis true,
we are all made of root
And rue; head-down and head-long, trailing
Like the arbutus.
O great Arbiter! I keep
A terrible secret. The staves acre. And the back
Ache. And the Longing,
long and low.
Old, hard news, Desire. That prick! And that
Sting. All but made. All the promises
I intend. To make. To keep. To bend.
So-long So-sweet! I will
Miss you! Doubt not, or do. I was true. I am
Plaintive, but pliant. Think-me-not
Heart-less or heed-less. None the less: I will.
Ease back. Once again. Yes. Exactly. As does
Spring.
So far, have managed, Not
Much. So far, a few fractures, a few factions, a Few
Friends. So far, a husband, a husbandry, Nothing
Too complex, so far, followed the Simple
Instructions. Read them twice. So far, memorized three Moments,
Buried a couple deaths, those turning faces. So far, two or Three
Sonnets. So far, some berrigan and Some
Keats. So far, a scanty list. So far, a dark wood. So far, Anti-
Thesis and then, maybe, a little thesis. So far, a small Number
Of emily's letters. So far, tim not dead. So far, Matt
Not dead. So far, jim. So far, Love
And love, not so far. Not so love. So far, no-Hope.
So far, all face. So far, scrapped and scraped, but Not
With grace. So far, not Very.
the lais of lost long days . . .
Today I used my new little hummingbird of a poem to get a big old hummingbird of
A bug out the only open, able, window. All my poems are hummingbirds, are windows,
Are poems, mostly painted shut. Mostly, suffocate and smile. But, hey, I know a good
Simile when I trap it, under glass. Like a cup. Discarded. Sordid. YOU COULD
NOT. The visitors come from all over to see how I can attend to so little for so long. So
Long so sweet! I said that in one of my latest poems. (One of my last.) I have finally got
Ten permission to repeat myself! Myself, never was one to relive the past, but now
I've seen that one clip many many times. Because your Face would put out
Jesus'. Still enjoy it. That new Grace. Still think I'm sitting too far back. Pale. Home
Sick. Eye. Still realize it isn't great art. Nothing is. Wire sculpture that. I know, I know,
It's been done. As I am sure someone has already lived this life, this wife, for me. Poor
Fuck. Sick Fish. Lately, I want, (o!), I wish, all my poems to end in, to end with,
Spring. The word, I mean. AND I, COULD I? Lately, I head steadily for,
Tread slowly toward, Abelard. Froward, I mean. I mean, Aberdeen.
june twenty seven eight nine nineteen sixty seventy ninety six seven eight
Some one just got on their bicycle, and is, and is
. . . GONE! The Sun makes his mellow his slow his
high-low-way. I send cigarette and coffee drunk postcards to
. . . EVERYBODY! Joe Joe Joe Joe Joe! How hot are you?
To summer, to summit (to submit) properly is a mighty, is a difficult
Task. Jenn! O Floating Friend! Are you still on the ferry to . . . BUCK
TOWN? There are new guests in my beds but, no.
No visitors, no visions, Love, O. Dear Mary, Hello. It is 9:47 in the long
blonde morning. Good Morning, Fair Warning! Hell-
o. O! Luminous Straggler, (don't you know?) all
my post-its are really addressed to no one,
no one, two, three, four but (YOU . . . DON'T . . .
KNOW) O!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I sigh,
I sign, with a somber sobriquet,
yrs, X. O.
in sleep and in sickness
in drought and in doubt
for porous for curious for highly and dangerous-
ly adventurous/experimental/momentous
(let me not to the marriage admit pedants, lice, pedophiles)
in truth and in truth and in hg1 sticky-er tricky-er wile-
ier truths (no, not the truths behind that mountain but of the sky
behind that sky)
in sleep and in sickness, once again,
in sleep and in sickness, once again,
in clamsauce and in stealth
(let me)
(not!)
through through through
and for for for for
(Admit it!)
EVER!
do you?
tickbird take?
do you?
swallow?
whole?