17.
Where have I left off—
Where dropped the ball?
I anxiously cough.
Am I———at all?
These glorious vainglorious excursions
Mushing through the foot-
Steps of those past
Is curious, vaincurious, obsessive, as percussive as
The best perversions.
18.
Noting how they blur
Coalesce, confer,
Descry, demur,
Deny, defer,
The sludge of booted innocence
Disguised as wise experience
Is gray & thick; lucky at last!
To bumble on the beam.
19.
unquoted
to your regular breaths
i am the hiccough
our little deaths
i will liccough
i will catch
i will catch up
i am the Czar Nodanough
and play in the halogen light
of the sewers, the
bodegas that suck all color out
to keep you little ones safe.
