City Boy
what she got for marrying the devil . . .
He was a peacock about his manhood,
Measured his mind by the length of it.
He was kicked out of high school but cut his wisdom
Teeth on the Encyclopædia Britannica.
He went to tell President Nixon
How to run the country,
And ended up in jail—in Wyoming.
He told stories about planting his seed,
Claimed he was directed
By an expert in eugenics. Threatened
To incest his own daughter.
But his head served as a block of meat
His co-workers at the wire factory
Would slice off at the lunch break..
His mother was a gentle, efficient woman.
His father was just gentle.
But his brothers were determined
To shit in every yard in the north end.
He gave people the creeps.
He was too self-slung to know.
Narcissus breathed on his mirror.
He made people cringe: like when
He took pictures of his sister in her coffin—
The sister he told his brothers only he could satisfy.
He wanted to remember her before she rotted…
One can only guess…the way you remember
Road kill before it goes to flies.
A slightly different version of appears in my collection Turtle Woman & Other Poems
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