To Mina Loy (revision)

To Mina Loy or Nima Oly or Amin Yol


I don’t want to leave you.
I’ll go back.

Courteous discomfort. Ideas
in eyes, an allotment; the facets
of all your inventions—

an invented face, “an implied whole.”
I think you’d like the word mug.

Did something happen in the reign
of your Adolescence?

Mine was pretty screwy.


*


Today in class we chuckled about the Curtain
starring as the Curtain, and of course, WCW and You
in Lima Beans. I’m glad you didn’t fall for him.

I think I love you. I think you are a hatchet
and hatchets are lovely. Literature
is a corpse-friendly place.


*

The editors are searching
for your lamps. Who has hidden a broken
lamp of yours? Today I don’t want to look
up a word and find it doesn’t exist.

I think existing is really no big deal.


*

The security man at the art museum said,
“I’m so old I don’t know if I’m alive or dead.”

Reply: “What are dead things?
What does ‘deadened’ really mean?
I mean, really?”

He walked away walkie talkie in hand.
I used to have one of those.



*

Mina, I think you were my neighbor.

“Get out of my yard,” you’d holler.
Would you, could you, ever yell at me?

Two things tell me a lot about people:
whether and how they yell,
and their bathrooms.

Mina, did you ever have a yard? Yell
across a yard?

To some, it’s so important. They say,
“Better get out your shears.”

Let’s take a walk, Mina. Really,
can I call you that?

bendy

urged worm
I am engaged
with bendy straws

urged worm
I protested a lot
with placards

bendy worm
urged me to step
so as to see steps

bendy worm
assuming
multiples

bendy worm
could've beaten up
calculus

its lessons stir
up in the brain
its functions

playthings-
serious
at some point

urge bendy
to return
as carbonated

balloon

Teaching "America"

Kept trying

in reaching


Never (resigned?)


Haven’t found

Nothing in the


How they thought they were superior
We are superior they thought

Everyone wants to be us

No one would want to be us because…

Have them mouth this

We are inferior because…

Mina Loy or Nima Oly or Amin Yol

I don’t want to leave you. I’ll go back.

I think you’d like the word “mug.”

Courteous discomfort.
Ideas in eyes, allotment
of a whole lot.

Facets are full of brochures
of your inventions. “The implied whole,”
I liked it when my professor said that.

Did something actually happen in your Adolescence—
in its reign and jawbones? Mine was pretty screwy.

Startling enough, I may have broken a lamp of yours.
Somebody else has to have one. The editors are searching.

Today in class we chuckled about the Curtain
starring as the Curtain, and of course, WCW and You
in Lima Beans. I’m glad you didn’t fall for him.

I think I love you. I think you are a hatchet
and hatchets are lovely.

This really is a corpse-friendly place. I just mean literature.
Some days I don’t want to look up a word and find it doesn’t exist.

I think existing is really no big deal.

The art museum security man said, “I am so old
I don’t know if I’m alive or dead.” “Excuse me,

is the art alive? It’s old. What are dead things?
What does ‘deadened’ really mean? I mean, really?”
He got out his walkie talkie and walked away. I used to have one of those.

Mina, I think you were my neighbor. “Get out of my yard,” you’d holler.
Would you, could you, ever yell at me if I walked through your yard?

What were you like when you yelled? There are two things that tell me a lot about people: whether and how they yell, and their bathrooms.

Mina, did you ever have a yard? They seem so important around some people. They say, “Get out your sheers. Your blades of grass are about to touch the sidewalk.”

Let’s take a walk, Mina. Really, can I call you that?