'Clinging to the Old Boy's Briefs
                             - for Allen Gurevitz, Poet



chasing the wild geese
feathers caught up in the wind
grabbing at thin air

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I'm in a dance to woo all illusion

will you be the one
to love mirrored in zero?
twice I am your twin

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Shiva/Shakti
slow dance hold me close
you don't even need to move
when the oyster shouts

listening to you
that the secret of life is
you can talk to me
8/1986

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I squeezed my baby so hard
my button-flies blew
in the back-yard
now I'm 1/2 her & she's 1/2 me
we're dancin' swell with our one body
9/1986

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vowell movement

the lead toad of
ponderance
lanced the petunia's
honey
with its gold tongue

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amoeba mob
synechdoche of family
what is me is you

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what does the tooth faerie
do with your tooth-
carve petroglyphs
amongst the stars
in a tutu

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3 kids & the art of war

blue Farfisa in my head
screaming
leslies full throttle
Civil Defense sirens; this was
just a test

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raccoon viscera gleaming to the sky
wonderstruck
no predator but
just some dream thunder in transit
dislocating the soul
grim the riptide
& victims of its whim...

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the meadow is that
which may be mown
mead from the meadow made
ne'r shall be
tho honeydew is
meadowsweet's very own
this thirst remains
ere thirsty

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wild roses explode in hand-
prints bequeathing perfume
amongst the gulag of thorns
where dwell the spirit songs
of birds

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outside the carnival
lonesome train blows
raw as a cock's crow her
blowtorch lipstick
boiled crawdad & henna
apple flames in her mouth
-flaying knife laid
to the ruse

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the finger of silence =
the measure of chameleons

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that sweet old thing her
tambourine of dentures
tosses up a mean tango

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drunk-boxing eyelids
see girl in blown
pear petals
waiting to cross street
Spring/1996

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wake up hangover!
nuthatch & mate carrousing
urgent
in the window
Spring/1996

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very old man walks
in wild flower spray of Spring
eating ice cream cone
Spring/1996

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crone diploma

ruby red rose has
ignited
in the theatre of
memory, I yell
Fire

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why bruise this flower
effortlessness overworked
perfume so fleeting
2/10/99

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Make Belief

All I am
is a wish
for Everything you are
and I am coming true
3/4/00

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when the crow calls out
doubling over with laughter
Spring's private joke flies
3/25/00

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Sunday morning bray
motel full of righteous hooves
shhh, tiptoe to God
3/26/00

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a perfidy of Haiku

this donkeyskin suit
gift of the Elven King's ire
fits like a prayer!
3/20/00

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"prohibit sharply the rehearsed responses..."
-W.H. Auden

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Dharmatot says:

Perfect Insight Comes
when Mind is finally still
She rises on top
5/26/00

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for the One in Exile

The Perfect Insight
occurring, She eclipses!
distinctions vanish!
5/25/00

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365th Lament

Nest of thorns atop the ayrie
cold kindling of briars
upon the hearth disposed.
No place to alight,

-maybe later
11/29/01

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Dabbling in Babel
is not the same thing as
Jabirish
The tree that grows these apples
does not fear
the worm
I keep covenant with the union of wisdom
& she makes believe in me;
her pretend protege

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may the crown of your achievements
adorn your head
triumph of horns
12/14/01

or

may the crown of your achievements
compliment the appointments of your antlers
12/15/01

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even the stoutest craft
finds occasion to quench
the thirst of its anchor

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Hermes in a hot-rod
blond crew-cut & mustache
very polite
"let's go!"
-yeah.
12/8/01

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treasure fruit
whose peel hath no surface
whose curve delights
imperfection

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wounded by exposure to the elements
sustained by the nourishment of secrets
I pass
between the stars
lighting small fires
to make the medicine
that heals the Diagnostician

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whither which way
shepherdess of sphixes
lambnapped and in Arcadia
knight errant of the doleful countenance
lord of misrule
shaft that pierced the
swansong in limerick
there was a madhatted hyperbole
that sipped upon unzippered
gerbil tea
when it had it go
wouldn't you know
you wouldn't and so
it went when it shouldn't
downstreaming your neck
most gracefully

joust with demons of the deep
millenery mills & hapless sheep
I'm always on my way
it's hard enough to tell a monster from a mill
much less a madman from a saint
therefore, if you'll excuse me
I'm always on my way
my religion neared extinction
when your patriarchs were swaddled tots
but I stumbled into Bedlam
collecting up stray thoughts

I burned
torched sunset desert of cactus
my heart
crumbling needles
ash in the wind

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Iris aura oracular
with eyes on the prize
observe the shifting
seasons of the Graal
to deserve a response
one must quest for position:
Almanac index
pronoun of sundials

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sun tea, samores & Paracelsian sugar star jellys

"cooked" or "uncooked" poetry
I want the Adamica Lingua
oratory & laboratory
or as my hands press together
Romeo samores/prayer sandwiches
the kitchen as Holy Place
where I may take my meals
ingrediants chosen w/care
seasoned with the
immortal spice
of Wisdom's recipe
Alchemical step by step
but does the work stop
in the kitchen?
must it not proceed
room by room
ineluctable fengshui
from North to South
to East to West
cooking, shitting
sleeping, rising
circumnambulating
the house entire
room service proffered
on a fine gradale;
that is, the geomancers
Lo Pan-
banquet for the retinue
of Heaven

---------------------------------

There is no Distopia
or Utopia
Civilization is just
an old beggar
rattling his false teeth
in an old tin cup
9/22/08

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protect
Gepetto from these
splinters of grief
buoy at the bottom
4/6/09

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these words owe their liberation
from the celibacy of my pockets
-may pleasure be their ransom

------------------------

the heart of man is
a tangled beast
call for the Huntress
before yousend for the
priest
3/24/09

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Diablo Mascara
King of the Hummingbirds
navigating south on his
birch bark canoe
studies the papyrus
charts intently

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the little shits
that make up rules
Elelectroshock Maggots
the wannabe lawyers
of the world, Maldororize
em all

---------------------------------

Mystic sleuth &
Dietician,
Hear the wheeze
of the Geezer as he
peddles his fondue

Honeycutt Markham Bodhisavaha

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Sacrifice of Father Time

the old geezer's a gonner
don't wait around & watch him wane
need be no question about
honor
just gift-wrap that
bullet to his brain
12/17/12

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Haunted House

sometimes a great notion
conceived in your head
jumps on the radio
knicked!

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into the blue
smoke skeletons dissolving
always never mind
7/29/13

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I gotta libate
my parchment
10/16/13

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the vaults of the
interminable
disclose
10/17/13

----------------------

moment to moment
monsoon
through the weeping pine
needles stretch
the forest floor
9/2/12

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parked poets of Kirkwood
Ave!
Evoe!
forth from your office cloistered
all dirty dinky & drdee
to the heights!
to the heights!
The Magic Forest awaits
3/14/14

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even dead roses
may dust off the
keys at midnight
-88 doors to eternal
daybreak-
no skylark's
curfew
10/6/13

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Down in Bog Squalor

its ruthless in the
grip of God
though your fists
rail gainst the
pillar of Mercy
salvation is a
long ways away-
and another day,
another dollar damned
10/12/13

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59 obituaries later
hazard of the annual
occasion
orbit overdue
1/10/13

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Once, in the great outback of the Hideho Gardens,
Jemima Kittlewick cooked a Rambo of BRBQ.
The Drunken Boat had a wet bar, Saison D'Enfer the menu,
and Illuminations provided the musical entertainment.
Trolleyback lollipop oer d'euvres.
Meentzy Tendertoe there with his toothpick & razorback harmonica.
Jemima unbundles her brassiere with the aid of varmint's contraption.
Halleluja! The amplitude of her banquet suffices.
Now, retie your shoelaces & zip up your leverage-
Time marches on no empty stomach.
6/18/13

"Ach Du Libra
Quoth the Zebra"
-Ken Kesey

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black sheep
vex the flock but
it ain't no badge of courage
still its just a fuckin' sheep
2/9/13

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those who dare
win favor of the gods
must first look them in the
eye
1/24/14

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well, I'll be a poached
flamingo
fevered bowell
skinny midnight
marmoreal & savage
mozzarella pallid

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like the werewolf
I have better things to do
than work at night-
say, labial swashbuckling
for instance

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cigar consort
escaping heavenward
"Maybelline, why can't you be true?"
her ecstatic lips
writhe with inscrutable
calligraphy,
Enlighten
Life's purchased smoke
8/17/12

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At the Flim-Flam
masquerade
the burden of sustenance
overwhelms the
appetite for discovery
6/15/07

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been a Buddha, beaten
bought and even obeyed
O baby
: : : : : : :
"Look into the mirror
of your mind
which is mahamudra
the mysterious home of the Dakini"
-Tilopa

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Owed to Ernest

Trudy kept a booth
both tooth & booty
that is all ye need
forever know

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fetching babe bones
& pursuit of the
Doom Booty
and there
the Glory of Carnival Rum
tumbled to a deleterious perfection
all told in a singular tattoo
invisible on the angel's cheek
solemnly received
in the one human tear
fallen from that
all seeing eye
7/8/09

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grafitti written on Indiana University Arboretum's bridge 3/18/2011:

"Lysergic Acid
what could be better in Spring?"

-Evidence yet for Life on Planet Earth

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my party animal
was murdered in my
sleep, however:
on the endless safari
to find another;
the ghost of the beast
still dwells within me
6/13/2010

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her marshmallow split open
& all this make-up fell out
-harvest of Portalet Farms

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dappled sunlight
fever in the flower
thirst that filled
halls of hazel hallows
fear in a handful of dust
hyacinth anniverary
:
[this abutted up against Swinburne's:

"For the glass of the years
is brittle wherein we gaze for a span; A littlle
soul for a littlle bears up this corpse which is man"]

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Zosimos,
I'm ready to return
now to the Paradise & Eve
my air, earth,
thirst & fire ascends in
the east, descends in
the west; through arctic north
and meridian south
riven awrest from
Grandmother Twilight
my blood no longer pallid
etching from my tale
leached chromatic ichors
fabulum made whole

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Poeme

mingled minutiae
with horae
Aeonic in soliloquy
A season seized
A snivel sneezed
Lips be still, shut squeezed
Hand that writes, hold
be-tremble
be teased
5/7/11

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Little Miss Flipper Britches
immerses into the sea's
secret pages
savin' her scallop shells
for a rainy day
midst the landlubbers
I really have a thing
for her. I feed her
cherries & ice cream (peach).
Hope she keeps
me around a while...

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San Blas Haiku

Garnet board
Hang nail
gently gives the finger to
old Pain in the Ass

6/16/2010

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Senseless
The taste of ash, regrown
callouses beneath the nails
all that's left of touch
climbing intangible walls
echoes of exile
retrace a path of
Bloom & thorn-
inveterate hound in the blood
have you lost the
scent,
blind & gone to seed?
11/19/11

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On Victory:
In a contest here below
there are only losers
because we are all
daubed from a confabulist's
ink.
8/2011

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when the glossary of the tongue's
stopped
a garden slug's slithery
demise, meaning-
less petroglyphs

as it ventures
like the suffering of a
wick in the lantern
we
embrace this immolation
for the sake of sputtering
and call it light?
9/2011

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cicada tremolo
jewell of the touch-me-not
virgo skinnydipping
2013

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broken fingernail
crumbling cupid
precarious
moth candelabra
old moose lost
 in a boudoir
bellow for bordello
spring/2014

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To wake w/roses
midst thickets unkempt
wild!
what wonders
we imagine we've dreamt
2/14

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why deny transition's impresse
her charged charm within our
secret mode & hieroglyph?
3/28/14

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Poet's toothpick

no mumble mouth Mr. Ed
Pegasus bit
these crumbs stuck
tween teeth

offending bit once freed
then free these crumbs
3/21/14

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Anima

To regard the goddess
each day I go
traipsing
my trollop lightly
unencumbered

reduce the arcane
arm-twisting of Death
to the still embrace
of Before & Everafter
the two arms of eternity
Spring/2014

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Walpurgisnacht offerings

the tears of frankincense
a demitasse of mead
4 honeybuttered cakes
beneath the wild rose
there in the dark
I thought to float
a votive flame in the pool
of Aphrodite
for the world burst forth awonder
2014

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O Sea Harem Hotty!
wet dreams
inner vaults, outter banks
smoked!
7/14

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the golden gates
of the Finch Pagoda
glow in the setting sun
our song ripens
7/19/14

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conquering empires of my own
bewilderment
this tale of moments unseized
while anxiety awaits
7/21/14

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old doubtfire hisself

with the jesters all gone
God jokes
I could rule the world!
8/14/14

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little ms. muppet sat on her puppet
eating her cottage cheese
along came the director who sought to correct her
by offering her lines on his knees

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sweet little candied raddish
in the honeysuckle
hummingbird undisturbed
by my lavish huckleberry outhouse
scrawl
7/21/14

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dangling lingual-berries
elude the ass
spellbound, sputtering
clinging to the Old Boy's
briefs
7/2/14

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choice cuts

no longer at the door
the beast has made a place
for itself at our table
maintain pleasant
dining conversation
12/10/14

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Belles-lettres

auto-da-fe
of grace or regret
words can't say
with holy fire her journals burn
evidence of a wondrous & unruly era
here & gone
vanished like the treachery of magic
itself
4/15/15

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True, 'tis but a cheap conjurer's trick
ending the attentions of Posterity
I gather this
 litter
gone to the Wilderness
to leave no trace
4/17/15

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walking
we recite the cuckoo clock
to ourselves
4/17/15

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before the rosebud
rubies
spill from the Hummingbird Tavern
4/12/15

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This dark carnival
we have dragged into Springtime
-the ticket you left behind
3/31/15
               -for Art

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"Arturis sepulcrum nusquam visitur"

Arthur's grave is nowhere seen
gone to the Isle of Apples
ever-green
Merlin lingers
in-between
4/20/15

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held these wounds
to be self evident
whimpering stylus
a lifetime of inscrutable
tattoos
forgave it all to hear
throbbin
briar-rose of Springtime
2/11/15

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where the rose bit the bony beet
in exchange for some imagined
insult
the bruise that blooms sucks
sour watermelon candy
5/13/15

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Lament on the Brevity of Breaks

wicked clock
gobbled coffee so quick
nearly torched
the luscious tome too
alas unfinished
that might cool these
heated words
with jitterbug perfume
5/22/15

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old fool parked in piñata
takes crash course in
punch lines
zen & chuckles
7/15

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bitterbrief
life is too long
to be a haiku
7/24/15

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dangling from the
alley of lost continents
the monkey on your shoestring's
last tango to the outer limits
8/15

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mail order bride

He wasn't at all like she expected,
a deficiency wrapped in dog collar, bourbon & bow tie
but he played a pretty good game of miniature golf
naked in the rain
8/15

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which came first
the forest or the tree

beneath the veneer of consciousness
a profound rot
11/7/15

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walking
roadside laid waste
by the blind idiot god's bush-hog
setting free the milkweed
awaiting Monarch's wing
11/3-11/7/15

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The Wealthiest Poet & the Million Dollar Poem

No matter what you see
threading camels
your words will come
unstitched, gone
scraping through
by the skin of your teeth
weeping
11/13/15

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jihad

as the bow of the new moon
aims at the seething light of the failing year
a paradise empties
mourning there may never be
but a twilight of houris lingers, bereaved
unable to hold those warriors lost
to the endless night
11/14/15

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Old Goat

nuzzling nymphs
on the threshold of heaven
bluebirds
toss the meager salad of his scalp
another unrepentant Last Supper
12/9/15