The "Perfect" Poem

—for William Michaelian, again

Of course we know there is

No such thing but

If there was it would be

How

Shall I say it?

Wise

Beyond words.

Huuklyeand Cinquor on Devious Marketing of GM Foods

You perverted Monsanto

Sodbusters just keep on

Swallowing this bull

Shit and ya’ll be corn

Holed

By the Grim Reaper.

Moderator’s comments: Well, now we know where Cinquor stands re GM foods; still

The question is: how does one hold an apple

Who likes apples

And how does one handle

Filth? The question is

How does one hold something

In the mind which he intends

To grasp and how does the salesman

Hold a bauble he intends

To sell? The question is

When will there not be a hundred

Poets who mistake that gesture

For a style.

—George Oppen, “The Gesture”

A Partial History in Two Poems

Whereupon the poet muses over remnants of memory and ends up wondering if seeing is believing.

Ties That Bind

—for Eleni

O

Beautiful the unbounded

Clichés, the limitless 

Vows of lovers, the ties that keep

Darkness light-years away from girdling

The unbound earth

In a single leap.

Of Love's Eternal Feast

Oh, dear lusting ones—

time and time again insatiable

countless gourmands gorge themselves

before regurgitating, lick their lips and go back

for seconds.