c. 1987
Vallejo's Victory
Poetry may be up against a wall this time
To emply a mirrored alphabet
Ambidextrous unit: the left crosses over into
Anything which softens a field yields evidence.
Speak, formulas! Cypress, Cyprus, corpus
What unfolds must finally recuperate.
Noisy days, crowded with salads
Feature radio shows arranging the tormented frequencies
Of yesterday, surrealist theories finally exposed
For the specific murders of three sisters: (ennui, regret and arrogance).
Let there be global doubt about all implications!
Let government reside on the postage stamp
Let kinds and queens be revived logistically
And meaning be minted by the proper authorities.
After all, he won on the basis of opposites
He won on a rhythm that can't be recorded
He made sons and daugters out of sentiment
He spent plenty of lazy afternoons denouncing the tongue.
Today, let's visit the graveyard of hurt feelings
Let's follow the pain of all repetition
Lets deify the very marrow of prepositions
Lets make all critics laureats.
The past is past: this is why the furniture is covered
In white sheets, this is why the lunch is digested
By code words, this is why all connection is doomed to detect
The organs of impossible nuance, this is why all conjunctions
Are composed like accordions, delicious sausage of success,
Delicious final decisions, ecstatic final paragraph of intentions.
Finally, the ruinous stop sign has been deified,
Finally contradictions are recognized as geniuses
Finally the hieroglyph is edible
Finally teenagers are elected.
Be reasonable and die
Be patient and illuminate all insults
Take charge of the numerous indebted
Be proud of the street's exigencies.
Thankful for all buttons, I wander plaintively
Around types of erasure, I glorify the simplicity
Of turning on the lights, watching the way doors simply open and close
Taking the moments that electricity engulfs.
These enthusiaistic followers beware
The plants, embrace the fan,
Scratch meanings across the nascent table
And swallow double messages in one joyous gulp!
