(Michael Misove, 1983)
Rumpled pulled on Cheer,
Malboros, sweat, to
Sit across
From slurper,
-Percolated dregs
-Scalded throat, binder
-Swirled powder
-Coated folds;
Residue taken
Up for scrutiny,
Sleeves rolled to
Pelted arms,
-Which crayoned hairline,
-Broadened neckline seam,
-Provoked the
-Palpable;
Probably weighed the
Same in the service,
'Til revoked,
And thrown out,
-No anchors aweigh
-In crackerjack and
-Dixie cup,
-Full dress mast;
Discharged: corrupting
Nuts to butts recruits,
Top bunk raised
Bottoms up,
-Stroke by stroke stacked up
-Shots across the bowels,
-Wipeable
-Tracery;
Sent back broke, luggage
Collected, letter's
Content flawed,
Bedraggled,
-Drawing ground muddied,
-Ventral plane, swerved from
-Mired, heads
-Toward safe berth;
Dust to dust, subtle
Accumulation
Results in
Pyramid,
-Pictogram, ghostly
-Motes sloughed, dry on dry,
-Deliver
-Gravity;
Pontifications
On fall of man from
Pulpit, draped,
Cassock, stole,
-Man-a-dressed, culprits
-Thrashed- or succored- their
-Declensions
-Heard through stalls;
Sonorous foibles
Curdled pre-pubic,
Bunched, gonad
Lollipops,
-Tootsie roll centers,
-Sticks rubbed together,
-Chalked: 'Veni,
-Dick, Veni;'
Locker bench wedgies,
Towel snappings, Bengay™
Pranks, shower
Coercions,
-Dragged out changings, soap
-Bar lingerings, steam
-Clouded, dream
-Sequences;
Boys of the faithfuls'
Nakedness clerics
Took in stride:
Edenic,
-Good padres froliced
-Where indigenous
-Apples halved,
-Serpents coiled;
Boiled pink, paraded
By tradition: Nam
Ceteri
Homines,
-Greco submissive,
-Roman communal,
-Soldiering
-Brotherhood
Picked apart, 'Czeched out,'
'Cemetery worm,'
'Mike Missolved,'
'The Gherkin,'
-Larry StandOn, 'Down!'
-Cornered on playground,
-Natural
-In art class;
His 'other' son, 'Up!
Take your nose out of
That book, and
Help me here,'
-Whelped in fear, blow ups,
-Unreliable
-Calm spells, gun
-Threatening;
Battened down orphan
Bereft, her lemon
Rose stems bent,
Petals strewn,
-Merciless nettles
-Festooned coffin's bones,
-Disfigured,
-Left jaundiced;
Ashes crossed sailors'
Foreheads, sunflower
Parlor lent
To stewards,
-Subterranean
-Towhead sight-read his
-Likenesses
-From blank sheets;
Muscle covered could
Pass in Kingston, trick
At Charlie's,
Downtown South,
-West Village sketcher
-In Delhi pasture
-Crayoned lads
-A milkin';
Aged beyond twink speak,
Circuit black, circled
Back in case,
Last call flashed,
-Toilet flushed, rust smelled,
-Night's paint drying stars,
-Pairs formed in
-Bars converged;
Soloists upstaged
By chorus purged from
Russian tome
Operas,
-War and Peace drumbeat:
-Swollen glands, lesions,
-Plagued soldiers
-On the march;
Store, and lease, lumber
Built reliquaries,
Bric-a-brac
Monetized,
-Proselytising
-In SoHo, Holly
-Window shopped
-Backs to bricks;
Black and white postcard,
Man reading a book
In profile,
Bryant Park,
-Crayoned, block letters,
-Colored in blue sky,
-Ocean, the
-Horizon.
6 August 2018
