this is the kind of poem i'm done writing, or, a small pang in spring

She rose to His Requirements—dropt

down, down,

down.

she rose, she dropt.

do you, little tickbird, take . . .

do you

swallow?

do you, no-breasted wallow,

a small sparrow, you.

o, it was a pretty little field, in spots sown with eel grass,

in spots sown with dew.

hey, little seeker of truth.

hey lil' flower with the heavy heavy head.

the full and fulsome head

of the moon.

you don't look so good.

little sister, leave the husbandry to the husband,

or leave the husbandry,

(or leave the Husband.)

gave and took, like a rook.

gave and took.

head.

benighted but bedighted, I remain, yrs Love, O.

darkling, I listen.

when you stop dropping you start thinking,

when you start thinking you start.

. . . blinking.

darkling, I cheat.

here's where you say or do something (anything) honest,

here's where you present your true account,

(lest someone returning chide.)

anything?

honest?

here's where you resort to your old and tired (true and tested)

rhetorical devices, (you would love the device.)

(pang)

hey, loose and lanky.

hey, ephebe, did you mistakenly fall in love with a phoenix,

a philomel? a flicker? a fucking

Bird?

I am among the slaves.

I am slavish,

a scrannel pipe!

scrawny,

screwed, yrs . . .

hey, you, lover of truth, you don't

look so good.

ringstraked

and freaked, yrslove . . .

derailed and defunctive . . . and yrs and yrs and yrs . . .

I listened to everything everybody says,

(said, yeah yeah yeah, we heard . . .)

never got ahead.

never lost my head. I was losing my mind not losing my

head.

it tingles and it pricks, like nettles, like devil's club, like nasty

little

thoughts and rills.

scortatory, addicted

to borage and hellebore, yrs, love, O, look,

a small sorrow sown in with the sparrow grass!

husbandman and Wife.

lordandlover and other.

it didn't matter the end would be the same.

the lovage and the borage, the barrage.

turns out, I am the cock of the rock, gallinaceous and pugnacious

and (pang): I guess,

a little disappointed.

like beckett in spring, ping,

like beckett in spring.