discourses (and afterwards) [2010]

I've been reading for a "more contented" poetry

(sniffing at the base of a tall anthology) "and laughing"

                    she said "it's spectacular" turning    leaving the room
                              into a celebration     "she arrived"

  "what really irks me about all this nonsense is that" he wept

(bringing the snifter of brandy down from his lips) "he smiled"
                    
                              "he is the work" of disappointment (and speculation)
                                        a feckless scholar     studying the crypt "of the empty set"

                                                  "outside the door-wall

I can hear the sound of my neighbor

shuffling up and down the sidewalk

in her slippers

attempting to coax a piss

from her agitated beagle"

breathing (the lawn fertilizer)

          I might carry a "rabbit" (grudge)     but not a hope
                    was listening for the "running away"

where might I find "an answer" (looking down)

a cautionary example "to guide me" of (disappointed) importance?

  "to my right

Peaches and Beauregard

are scurrying about

quietly making mischief

in a cardboard box

and a laundry basket"
                                                  living (the open wonder)

...and 3 and 4 and...

 
  where her mother was "found"     she was "also" missing

was investigating history (not with another) of "afflicted lights"

          "a verse proved to be an unhealthy thing" (looking at IT as such)     to "70 and below"
                    perhaps "the initial draft" was correct in assessing (Wilfred Owen's corpse)
                              a bloat is upon "this body of wealth and ideals"    this settlement

(an arrangement) of particular zeros and ones "coincidentally left"

 
  so the approach has fortified "in anticipation of the coming"     the last line
                              made a recognition (with MY little numbers) of an "entire mess"

"as the engine whirs

I am reminded

of a separate love

that once held me

to its polished chest

and a higher standard"

  pacing (a dead industry)

  now walking (no hobbled running) to a "cracked beat"

an egg resting "in the pocket"     alongside (bleeding) dollar

          (this is) a blatant endeavor to be "institutionally scrutinized"     over there
                    as something settling for an anxious "and unsettled" poem (settle for this)

                                                                      "what was once

the primary plank

of sustenance

remains simply as

a three point snack

before bedtime"

devouring (a new self)

 
  and ("a tree"

                                        fell

                                       "before me")

                                       I embraced it