a pint; the foreign landlady sends
in
coffee
at odd hours and doesn't charge it;
the brilliant friend suddenly weeps, and pity
does the trick; the adolescent skeleton
marionettes
in
front of the glistening wardrobe;
the nun fingertips her scraped pate with pride,
and the masseur, the barber, the preacher, and the prior.
So like whiskey creates anger, and love creates greed,
as the lizard creates the sun, and the bull sand,
we have ::reated your sin, we conceived
the death of your innocence.
With all our aging need, we have corrupted you,
as the air corrupts the bud into flower,
as the fountain corrupts the air.
Let us go, and you in front with sackcloth and ashes
over silk, and lament the beautiful ivory death
all would have walked thru had we not met-
in a carnival of personal pronouns, a battle of flowers
and roots, wear this laughter to shreds.
