Michael Misove 6 August 2018

                  (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