ONE MONTH

26


Has the dollarstore
become another national
symbol? Do the variously
ethnic models in this
beer ad on the 5 train
get drinks together
after the shoot? What
is so deadly American
about perfect teeth?
Can the engagement
with one’s local tongue
excuse the onus
of tackling others?
Are you getting off
at Wall Street or
further down the
ladder? Does every
dream have a secret
lever so as to revolve
into nightmare? Does
the availability of the
current phone strip
it of its brrringing
magic? In what tender
lurks the treasury
of the heart? Don’t it
hurt, this recycling
from bone to bone?
Where would we be
without the U-turn
of humiliation? Must
I always get paid
by the hour? Whence
arrives the chortle
borne by the intimacy
of death? What of
the portion of you that
samples annihilation
among friends? How
heavy hangs the brow
of all ungenerous lovers?
Are all statements
lost in the underlying
ballistics of the question?
What astound us
more than coming
under the slow ease
of wealth? Does this
administration have all
its dicks in a row? Why
wend one’s interior
around the shapeliness
of distant shadows?
Can the rich survive
without war? Does each
bill blow awkwardly
through the mind’s dull
commerce? What dream
is dreamt in the vaults
at night? Is this canceling
dawn the antidote
to time’s horror? How
now? How often we
weary? What new boat
arrives in memory’s
stagnant mooring? If
I say I love you does
that mean I will soon
be owing you money?


27


Is the plagiarism
of future works
a poet’s occupation?
Can new relationships
be forged without
magnetism? Why
waste time loving
the irreparable?
Could the answers
in the trees be
forged of invisible
substances? When
does the ambivalence
about surveillance turn
into revolt? Shouldn’t
there be a name for
the loss of ontological
culture? How come
this hanging takes
so long? Who isn’t
afraid of the ghosts
wind makes of air?
And who doesn’t
desire the membrane
of their embraces
anyhow? Where do
I slur my pattern’s
weft so as to invite
the real? What does
the cat think a sneeze
is? How long will I
be able to inhabit
this class structure?
Why don’t children
name themselves?
Are we allowed to
imagine Adam as
a child? Who says
society’s preservation
trumps the spiritual
requirement for orgy?
Why has this parcel
of land not endeared
itself to someone
enough to harbor
a name? Names aren’t
simply tools for oppression
are they? Who still puts
stock in the hierarchy
of narcissists? Why not
move to some remote
Canadian wood and start
over? Why begin again
when the end is so near?
What is less possible than
not choosing? How do
you like my white smile
salvation light? Can I
touch you in dusk’s
winnowing gully? Why
not? How often does
this dose of finitude
encroach on our daily
wreckage? Won’t you
entangle a little every
day with me? Doesn’t
that ship out on the edge
of the horizon shame
us with its honesty?