Every "I Love You" (A Fragment)

For some time every "I love you" she uttered was like turning her ass toward an angry dog, offering it that fleshy but, in terms of potential trauma, inconsequential portion of her anatomy. Offering it, that is, while rolling up the magazine with which she planned shortly to wear the animal out. A feint, in other words. . .

For some time every "I love you" he uttered was accompanied by kisses, which he placed on the nape of her neck with all the delicacy of a pointillist. Placed, that is, much like his hand upon her hip every night as he listened to her breath fall softly into the cadence of sleep, and he lay there as if in a mist of her exhalations, grateful -- grateful to God (whom he had only just begun to believe in again) -- to have her by his side when the bad dreams came. And they always came. . .

My Neighbor

of wretchedness there are many sorts;
most of which, however,
are a-semous as static,
unheeded, snored-over --

the wretchedness of her oxford
from the discount shop, sweated from shop to shop
and dried of labor's lost labor
in her child's screech, in its needy upturned mouth.

i will, on leaving, kiss this apparition
whom seeing compels me to roads
eastward from the maddened dust. i run:
my contraception.

Perhaps Now I'll Write . . .

Perhaps now I’ll write . . . I’ll pass on this batch of
doggerel
oh well washed up
perhaps a job in a factory better suits me

beats me how to write poets, esp. contemp. poets,
too precious by half
if you have to ask sure, but watch yourself;

all egos though they try to downplay it
are lurking snakes in the grass their venom is
not quite as sweet as mothers milk—

so I’ll forgo the preliminaries
proceedings proceeding acc. to plan man
I could—you’se a biscuit! now why did I think that now?
not now I have a headache which reminds me:

if your cock should get lopped off
by a piece of eqpmt.
then you will know just how far her patience extends and then
misery will attend you just as it does me
it never ends a curse from a curse and I disburse it forward, postage due,

do you comprehend the scope of his despair
when hes aware hes already lived his best life?

Overheard

"Huh? I won’t shut up.
Living is, you know, really falling down a well, --
No, there’s no one there to feed you with a fork on a rake --
because such abrasions would occasion consideration of your condition.
You don’t know you know you’re falling, is my point.

"Anyway, that’s my position.
So continue dreaming of lies
like permanence and stasis.
But I’ll let you in on this:
what we know as bodies we feel
no philosophy can encompass."

Doctors, Variously

Johnson's Metaphysickals:
“heterogeneous ideas [their's]
yoked together
by great violence.”

But what would the doctor,
inclined gustatorially rabbitward (vide MacCaulay),
say of he whose repast
is the very yoke of violence?

Send downstream, would he, no sin
molesting midnight with its blaze
for to ash the river’s scum to raze,
that he should dip his toes in?

(I doubt it.)

A metaphysician
once met a physician;
contrary chirurgeons
they found each other,

But this was no bother

Because Scalpel -- the very Form of "scalpel" --
cuts minds
and fatted rinds alike
to fright them into bleeding.

From Russia with Love

Your E. has a bogus profile with the handle "kelly_christie" on the nerve.com personals site. KC is apparently quite popular with the Hyperborean set. This correspondence was sent him recently:

I want that you have paid the attention to my structure. If you really search serious relations, and your heart is occupied with nobody, write to me.
Write and give to me the email. And it is even better if you will write to me on my address:

[name deleted]@yahoo.com writes only here!!!

I wait your letter, do not hesitate, and write to me. Your structure has really liked me and I am interested in acquaintance to you.
In the first letter I shall try to tell more about myself and I shall necessarily send you the photo

Anastasia

And this, too, recently (I should say that kelly_christie goes both ways.):

Hello. My name is Igor. I looked yours profile and you have interested me. I would like to learn about you more. If I have interested you write on mine email [name deleted]@mail.ru. I wait for your letter and a photo with impatience. I hope for pleasant dating.
Igor

I sometimes feel ambivalent about my prank profile, as if I am toying with lonely peoples' feelings. One thing I have discovered, however, is that very few people pay attention to anything but the photograph. Some remark on kelly_christie's shall I say, curious, statements and musings -- but even these don't deter the lovelorn. Only one's "structure" (to quote dear Anastasia) matters, ultimately.

What can I say? KC is the very picture of glasnost.