1
Sweet cheap wine,
taste
with woodruff and
berries and fingers
blood-red
tulpen snow-white, too
not snow-white snow
–
woo-hoo woo-hoo
Tantalizing green
sets off
redbud seams in
draws –
(It’s only natural
to love the new
(those who get old
r creepy
So black or fair me
laddie-o
the ladies all come
courtin’
Corinna fair and
Paddy-o
with Lycidas are
sportin’ –
(woo-hoo, &c.)
Birdy-snake /
birdy-snake / birdy-snake
over-under-over-under-over-und
fluttering
parti-colored spokes
All that happens
tomorrow &
tomorrow,
woo-hoo.
When we play the
poem down again,
half-empty or half-full,
then half nothing,
the maypole
ribbons, guy-wires
of th’universal antenna, the dick,
wind down, alas, as
well.
All’s well
ah well,
Woo-hoo.
2
Finally, a toasty
breeze! instead of
freezing my ass off
in a fricking gale –
Flowery foresters
are out, I’m out,
everyone’s out to
each other,
fast in a bass boat
or walkin the dog
Cytherean Venus and
the Nymphs,
decked out as
hippie chicks, play
an outdoor gig – or
some Ultimate –
while her sucker
husband
has the day shift
in the boiler room
nobody wears lilac,
myrtle –
none of that sissy stuff 'round here –
but if they did,
they’d do it now.
Jesus, stop
sacrificing for once
in your life! It’s nice – play ball!
Soon enough the ump of all
will call you out
at home hence
delayed
gratification means an ox-eye,
moron. So: retire
immediately, Joe –
before you retire
for good,
a weirdo ghost, to
a flickering home
from whose bourn
you don’t get back
your winnings,
winings, whinings,
or self. Nothin but sixes and tens
then – and no randy
dallying, sure.
