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--- R O N A L D   P A L M E R


"I speak / because / I am shattered" Louise Gluck, The Red Poppy

Orange snake: coiled into anxious smirking: thick: head: lifted: swaying like intoxicated saint: smelling tongue: flame licking: harmonized in fighting position:

I think I know: what you mean when you think in voices: I see you in your garden talking to the flowers: writing periodically in your note: book: I know what you suffer from: Lie down in the grass:

Go ahead: put them into flowers: I snatch him up: myself: drop him into a glass box. Let him rile and complain all night: snapping fangs: everything's a wind: ow: hemo: rr: haging: attempting to pass: as elite: as polished: let's all roll in the mud together: that'll erase difference: Where my life becomes parodic: do you: dig me? Com: pre: nde? Mot: her: fuc: ker?:

My father and me: are still swimming: like blind dogs: in my childhood: bedroom: yeah: you like that: don't you: pawing through: lukewarm orange water: searching : (my father: used to call:

my mother: stupid bitch: recall an itch?): pine needled surface: for crucial breaths: near the claustrophobic ceiling: Where a rueful voice announces: since you were two: a longing invades:

like bone- damp: ness:

A submerged lamp clicks on: shows our legs wading: injects a shivering: I pull the cryptic door handle: less: ly inward: as my entire orange ocean: flows out.

© crossconnect 1995-2000 |
published in association with the |
university of pennsylvania's kelly writers house |