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--- B R I A N   K I M   S T E F A N S


(It is nothing like revolution, it is more like de-
volution.)  (Rabbits in the patch dying 
from artificially induced suffocation for law and limp 
order.)  (Shore leave or compromise, all 
the same in the hyperbolic star of an 
infant with nipple needs.)  (They keep the borg 
tape-mouthed, wrists cuffed in the 
closet.)  
            1. And fomented emigration 
to the city births an anemia, crock issues won't 
desist; able and willing (presaging a 
deformity / of country codes) valors and 
creativity - take it to the mountains, and sleep 
on soles. 2. Hiccough under prose, slack averting 
of the verbatim, shy guy slumping 
in a corner, hair greasy, attitude unadjus-
ted to society, puns. 3. It's all just a loose-
lipped (we'll weep about it later) calibration 
of poetry; two socks mismatched, and the 
strumming of a lyre. 4. Marks the air before his fore-
head with an index finger, shaping a 
colon, paratactic similitude of cogent theorem, 
puns. 5. No panic attacks, the mind stays easy, 
strays free in Symbolist "white space," re-
turns, always, to the assurance of mean-
ings - policies that park. 6. Pun only semi-in-
flectional, not "intended" (but indented) streams like 
shit of meaning. 7. So that the sun settles 
in its pocket. 8. Strategies to choose from 
are presented by court ardor - the mayor resents but 
greets the categorical crowd of half-
baked, irresolute plangent reformers. 9. Sum-
mer and evenings, by the ocean, face 
blended with the winds and palms of some stereo-
typic entrapment -  there is little here 
that speaks.  10. The position is empty / of a grown 
man without envy. 11. The party dances 
on, without him, crass comedic urges that he 
has, connections still being made 
in the lights of syntax that is sobriety; the pairing 
of lovers slalom forth on the  "accurate 
impulses" of undebatable relevance.  12 Watch-
ing from the gables and attics, children with pro-
lix complaints and commitments; suburbs 
are theory of the wide-eyed preter-adolescent, stuck in 
shoes Papa brought back from the war. 

© crossconnect 1995-1998 |
published in association with the |
university of pennsylvania kelly writers house |