To begin ...

As the twentieth century fades out
the nineteenth begins
.......................................again
it is as if nothing happened
though those who lived it thought
that everything was happening
enough to name a world for & a time
to hold it in your hand
unlimited.......the last delusion
like the perfect mask of death

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Uncollected Poems (5): What They Wore

WHAT THEY WORE.
A PLAY FOR ACTORS.
IN FIVE ACTS.

(1)
He wore a top hat.
She wore a feather in her hair.
He wore a nose-plug.
She wore a tuberose.
He wore a shadow.
She wore a calendar.
He wore a scarf.
She wore a field of wheat.

(2)
He wore a lightning rod.
She wore a message.
He wore a dangerous display.
She wore his stripes.
He wore a double knot.
She wore last winter.
He wore June Twenty-Third.
She wore obsessively.

(3)
He wore between impressions.
She wore too large.
He wore in quotes.
She wore not very often.
He wore a day ride.
She wore the other side of sleep.
He wore what wore him.
She wore the weather.

(4)
He wore how well she thought.
She wore their stanzas.
He wore an open buckle.
She wore between her legs.
He wore the more he wore her.
She wore a third of what she wore.
He wore bananas.
She wore a dangerous display.

(5)
He wore her slippers.
She wore pretending.
He wore canonically.
She wore as though she wore.
He wore for breakfast.
She wore & didn’t.
He wore their elegance.
She wore their elegance in sleep.

circa 1970

[This poem was recovered, along with numerous others, for a volume of Uncollected Poems to be published by Mark Weiss and Junction Press.]

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