conditions

***

now and again some toward man                             with a pulse

may pass a   c  a    s   u  al     glance over the burnished         rot

of your plagiarized  thoughts                                       , and feign

s  o  m  n  a  m  b  i  v  a  l  e  n  c  e                           SO THAT YOU,

(           whose only infinite character is as a fool for flattery     ,)

may for a            moment                     fancy     yourself a picture

a n d  n o t   a     p   u   z   z      l  e            p        i                     ss,

so heavily affected                                 and boringly tragic when

inevitably broken apart and sprinkled back                   into some 

                                                                                      flimsy box

interred into the shallow sw  e  e  p       of    long-haired gr a    ss

,                    and things that actually last                                     ,

                     you succinct and unremarkable little mess.

(not even the sublimest delusions of      l o ve and love   li   ness

stop nails in coffins in lonely plans & plots for even just a patch

of     t                 i                     me       less                             ness.

to bear a faggot or to be enflamed-

and thus they hasten to the end, and thus are shamed.)

***