intermission

the trick is leaving well enough alone
or leaving them when they've only just discovered you,
(observe)

a movie where, chased by mad harridans, you'll run soundly along streets filled
with parked cars and crumpled newspapers
background music boxing your ears
into submission, admission, admit it
you'll carry then for hours a ringing hum in the core of your being
(listen)

now, below you words appear, formed by the movements of your mouth
in white or yellowed, they appear
then disappear as words from one, as words from others
someone is killed or dragged screaming
from a burning house,
someone knows you've been making love to his wife,
a stiletto hung obliquely in mid-air
and the measure runs out

paraffin hat

besotted by the taste of angels.
glowering jaws shunting winged parts of cathedrals down the gullet.
sir, sullied you are.

your teeth a habitat of vicissitudes strung helplessly across the noontime hour by spheres harmonised and tuned by plunkers. all. everyone.
everything you ever wanted.

right here. below and in shadow.
forever, see?

you can't lift it. it's stuck fast.
with pins. and needles.
held tightly by fingers mercilessly strong.
each knuckle white with strain. admiration for the glutton.
swallowing choirfuls.
pooping out the halos along with
the opportunities of youthful beggars who believed in them.

bye now. have fun.
the end.