the Situation

"He was kind of cute!"

though sweaty as a beast

and lewd. Come-hither sweetness,

the race renewal,

anything nice.

Asymmetrically balanced curves

built on the notion

that the words meant

that one thing:

but of course they didn't.

Removing suspicion

from the situation

by replacing all doubt with certainty:

• The 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre happened.
• Time did what was done to Ozymandias.
• The virus propagated from the profligate.
• The signpost is confused, crying very loudly in the shower so the roommate's boyfriend won't hear.

Who could kindle putrid

demagogues of hope

toward this demonized dope

who's rightly livid?

Kabuki

Temperance,

if you are the prime virtue

in the grey heather raglan

tee shirt, thin from much good use;

small distances would still

seduce you from equanimity.

Small obtuseness then.

When one love breaks

and then another.

Chastity and her brothers

are juiced up and salivating

—is like Virgil in late summer.

If they could have coffee

in the cave of all temporal knowledge

then they could have coffee.

If they could rustle up some

white face paint

then kabuki.

This Ring

I am so old.

I don't even remember

what this ring means.

Quitidian and self-immolative,
wishing the right wish and
inefficacy.
Lesbian mentor and inefficacy.
Quietude, precision, death.