The Grid of Intimacy
Behold: A vegetarian with his hand up a
Heavy equipment, which is The Count
His deathless numbers! How I loved them.
And the night we were allowed to take him home
From the Sesame Workshop
I got a little scared.
He weighed more than you’d think.
When Linda Rondstadt
Asks Elmo for a hug, Elmo considers.
Dear Mom,
The year of your birth
Marked the first significant break in movie
Self-censorship in more than 20 years.
Hugh Hefner founded Playboy,
An entertainment monthly for indoor urban males 18-80
51 copies of the first issue,
Containing nude photographs
Of Marilyn Monroe,
Sold for 50 cents each.
Touching Elmo’s fur brings out the dog in Elmo
As surely as throwing a bone
Confusing, consenting, ticklish.
The Witches
A broad and level road led from the city
& from this another branched off to the mountain
All for the taking.
One witch jogged along mounted on an ass.
Others full of agility skipped on the ground
With as many arms as Briaereus & teeth as long as bones.
Some wore blue florescent skunktails, (butt plugs?), chokers, purple lipstick,
& grew wet sacs of makeup out of their faces
& gnashers out of their uteri
& from each end, veiny green cocoons.
What surrenders completely to ecstasy but stays
Bouncy like a jelly?
Oh yeah, a female.
I’m young, safe, of healthy mind.
Become disoriented sometimes.
But when the film rolls I always know where to look,
Mother.
Inspiration
“Inspiration is there all the time…
It is a consolation even to plants and animals” —Agnes Martin
What did I do to get this needs?
Today I got a squeaky nut
I go to the Met
It’s so cute how I go
Where I know bones & skulls will be
Zurbaran’s lemons in her hamper
The first time I recognized
A lemon of Zurbaran I thought
Now I have been transformed by art
I mean it
He wasn’t the most prolific
Or best Spaniard but
There is a genius in transition
I spent maybe 40 minutes there
And saw no other poet
*
Did you leave a bunch of stuff at my house?
The child said
Hair in my brush?
Anyway now it’s my stuff
What is this?
The child sassed
This doesn’t seem like ordinary grass
*
I had a string of girls I might call friends
Elena, Elena, (two named Elena)
All tough, brunette, lizardy
Quick of movement
They considered me tentative
As the harvesters
As the harvesters
Follow arrows of crop
Be open to them, they told me of boys
Of parting
All had brothers
Even their sisters were brothers
Their mothers were brothers with snacks
Their fathers were a distant
Sort of brothers
I was very up-front
I said, Elena, praise makes me very happy
Glory holds no emptiness for me
One had threadbare underwear and loved to dip
Into olive oil anything
*
Did I invent poetry?
Asked the child
What if I just write things dad says?
How much sense do I have to make?
One time dad said moonlight is pale
Speaking of something else
Are poems neurotic twitches?
Sassed the child
Is everything art?
For example,
We ate pork belly and the tree
Doubled over like a knee
A sudden big smell in nature
Turns out to be Big Red,
White pepper and mulch
I hope not
& the flags of dusk rise up
& the sky expands past its pokey threads
Then I remember the word for this place:
Kingdom