A face cast up where metal birds ignite.
O hang this neck with penance, with retreat,
that we not start fights.
[Harmonica. Harmonica as argument over last morsel. As swayback
mare. As medical chart. Weather
fronts exhaust themselves peeling away over
Harmonica. Harmonica
grifts, braggadocio, then with its graven plastic head kicked
in. Stove stoked by Harmonica
breeds left-behindness, sends a postcard.]
——
He ate up all her chicken, wine, and rice
without her knowing, pinched it from its place.
He wasn’t to her nice.
[Harmonica as stand-in for long shot at Gethsemane. As long-
since uncut forelocks. Threshing
machines mowing in tandem four abreast shave
Harmonica before going
out. Harmonica gives Hiss kiss on temple settling into its own
UnderIce. As picked bluebell, pines
away. Harmonica pouring out tall stacks yellowish.]
——
Whatever strife there was to begin with’s now double.
He thinks his manservant, practical, worthy, able,
but, Lord, unbearable.
[Harmonica grey-beard. Calabri-Yau hoards Harmonica’s seven
dimensions. Tendering resignation
Harmonica sugars the gas tank. As holdup. As
language-death stalking the brain
base kitten-blind. Nobody touch Harmonica. As a long wait for no one.
As watercress. As not what you ordered.
Harmonica’s thoroughness a tracheotomy in a tool shed.]
——
Lament lament lament lament lament.
It goes this way until ere long it’s went —
and where his interment?
[As timepiece, melting sundial. As thought emergent. Cannibal
Harmonica flings hooks last-ditch
Harmonica into the elusive meat of a moment trying
to shore up the flood of what’s
going. As the stringed seam of a bean. Harmonica stray-dogs about
town. Footprints Harmonica in fresh
snow, there they go. Harmonica admits to there being
not one answer. As too many.]