Herzog

 

Steely blue wonder

having almost closed

his eyes to God, it was

the fear of Mexico

that prized them

open again, so that God,

carried aloft on the

smile of his emotional

support animal, Klaus Kinsky,

could be

transported in —

 

Against Warhol

 

The feeling of being watched,

or at least swallowed. As if

she could clean you with a single

rag of birdsong. From the sky,

one hot tear from your forefathers,

begging to be measured.

But there’s no cup, no

kitchen. Just one mouldy

statue, dreaming of television.

 

Feud

 

The new world, I said, yes,

the new world, she said, what

about it, I said, isn’t it enough,

that it’s new, that it’s a world,

what more could you ask, she said,

I don’t ask anything, I said,

that’s the problem, she said,

you ask for nothing, so

you have nothing, and what

do you have, I said petulantly

at which point she went

outside, this happened

twelve years ago

 

Mesa

 

Let the night be a lesson

to all creatures, as it must

have been when it was early

yet, when it was still

déclassé to call the noise

of a bird song, or for a woman

to strip just for the sake

of the air. The air used to

respect itself, vigorously, it

used to snow! But isn’t there something

breast-like in snow, if there’s enough

of it, sufficiently few

people? The Dutch especially —

will you please

get out of the way! Alarm! Alarm!

Achtung, Dutchman! The snow

would like to give birth

to something truer and greater

than you, no more bicycle lanes,

please! Only the freezing point

of absolute moistness, when the breast

tip hardens so softly

even the sparrows can’t

hear, they just look this

way and that, confused,

like the idea of home

had been and gone,

it didn’t even

bother to knock.