THE HOMELANDS OPEN AND CLOSE


This grinding and polishing
of her delightful animal head
the myriad subcatastrophes carrying a man
keep a nice, clean scientific edge between us
fringe-tipped tongue pierces the snail's nerve
harness lets the man quickly feel fruitless,
to a level beyond the lament
of an elephant in a state of melancholy

Found in the boundary layer
the gentleman, the clown, the lawyer,
rattling and trembling all day long
could never learn to rule themselves
all need to be sheared
to fight wars to maintain

In a storm, the eggs stick sound
in the predawn body moved past the workers
scripts lay muzzle on her mouth and a white blanket
hum of her snore was the tide of revolution

Laughing, smoking, or torpid and electric
the scholar, the beggar, the doctor, the idiot
clamored for war
in buildings that had long been fire
built trading posts
like frozen cobweb
and never got uncoiled.