To a Maple (audio only)
Click the icon above to listen to this audio poem.
            writing on the bruised
body and seeing into the
bruise’s locked backyard, not
psychoanalyzing the incursion
but appreciating its scissory
up and down
———————
            sell me a clip-on
bow-tie or a mock
fringe chapeau worn on
the collarbone—a
new style of “shoulder
hat,” a cape to
protect your shoulders
from rain and chill and
to prevent the wearer
from sliding (like
Mickey Mantle) into
a third gender
 
__________
 
            now I’ve
reached the “clinker” zone
of perforated opportunities
 
__________
 
 
            —perforated appurtenances
 
____________
 
 
but then Edith Piaf
suddenly thrilled me
 
__________
 
            a newly
discovered Venezuela, a
view—
 
____________
 
            a rendre compte,
a liar on the cornthe atonality of folded underwear the Tel Aviv of Chinese water torture the martians of My Three Sons the parsimony of Tel Quel the archivist of beatitudes the Helsinki of Frankenstein the Winchester Mystery House of devil-may-care the worldwide franchise of Croatian mystery plays the Bettie Page of situationism the New Criticism of Ethel Waters the marble pound cake of tauromachy the Christopher Strong of Sesame Street the Michèle Morgan of abstinence the 19 Berggasse of Calvin Klein the stifling corridor of condom leakage the Boris Karloff o