THIS WRETCH

In love with the women of other men. Once it was an affliction. I hated my envious heart. I love you J. I love you D. How brave they are, the custodians of your beauty, the men whose diaries I no longer read. I am in debt and self-disgrace. I do not want my wife or baby. How sweet to be this wretch, sitting at midnight in an empty house, forgotten by himself in the midst of his own testament.

THIS WRETCH

I’m fucking the dead people now

not you with your breast on fire

not you with your blouse on the floor

Why do you ring the bell in the night

as if we lived in a town

as if the Infant were born

as if the Mystery survived

I’m fucking the dead people now

I don’t have to try for a song

I don’t have to count up to ten

Why did you let your fingers grow

Why do you wear your jeans so round

There’s snow on your eye. Your underwear

is cold especially the rim

Not waiting for a parachute

Don’t want to scrape off the moon

Try to die on your stomach

I’m fucking the dead people now