I
that last single last ragged
drop
assented to pass
through poly
-styrene coils
he plucks up his stride
from a scrubbed off floor
finally allowed
to mount the phrase
deep breaths then
innocent men
a lachrymal snort wasting one
feebler tear he’s
read of those
before
in doubled negations
in a parisian prisoner’s hand
to translated women poets
editions and sweetened diaries
besides
besides
gusts of chasing reasons
circulate
begin to amuse
thus failing the framework
of atkinson-shiffrin
and looking forward
down from another
the reason:
amusement
all
we seek to seek
II
streetlights shine
for tarmac tonight
while sensory road signs whistle
to the wind
where not to blow
a pantheistic song
without iconography
manifested only in time
gets trapped between his teeth
whitish arms
bound
in swelling concrete suits
III
strained from ancient courting’s game
tuscan furs and golden clubs
four-volumed books and spices from the east
tulips and silks and boat trips abroad
electric adventures and a smoothly running machine
and funds and stocks and pills quite blue
and techni coloured love
above all
always
paper green and blue
yet the priggish voice still whispers
in honeycomb pleats
at least my dear variety
for breasts and hips and hair and neck
tend to stay the same
IV
forgetting nature’s way
they call us continuants and
endurers
and neatly tie us up
with an identity
persistence
but what if
if it were
what if it
what if it were triangular
only kept in coincidence in
that four-fold net
and coincidence were
pierced
what if
by habitual intercourse, separation, despair
by inconsequential doubt
V
dew had just fallen
from dream-ridden skin
it clung to blades
of upright hair
when
in a foam of thoughts
suspiciously common
the map
the map was revealed
purple lining
and cream letters
fingers glide
over two hundred miles
per touch
where to?
and when?
under laughs
a plot is devised
with a bubble sextant
and a set square
VI
lured by a moment of unbearable grief
he chooses to touch her neck
a mechanical flutter
blossoms
in her breast kept safe
in thatch and stone
and love excuses all
he once believed
when once he loved
but that flutter embarks on a
hydraulical shove
and he shrinks to size again
yet the flutter then tightens
to a shriek and a groan
one thought of seven
in teiresias’ cove
and to know
all
is to detest
all