300

MY CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS

Inasmuch as the lyric poem
Does not tend to demonstrate
An awareness of guilt
(Or its lucky opposite-embattled
Happy laughter) it is

A tool with which one of
The serious dreams arc-welds
Minus the touch-football
At the company school

Now not only are we alive
We are also awake thanks
To the birds who while not
Showing up on radar ne'ertheless
Are shouting "Pardon me

Do you have an adaptor?
I need a shave"
And it's true they look criminal
The trees resemble old men
Or rather bachelors between 34 and 57

Men who occupy these apartments
Which are beautiful as
The lyric poems of the 30s
These men are as horrible
As helicopters in the morning

For instance the smell of smoke
Or heating oil rising from
The freight elevator

For instance the beloved says
"Do not send me to summer camp"

For instance oil of bergamot

Guilt in America is for someone
Eager for attention
In a past television
Was the early light
But now we are neither certain
As a thermos will crack in the sink
Nor do I drink as faithfully
As a Russian

If there is no essence

Then are these nationality jokes
Returnable for refund?
Have they recalled even the prejudice
That a little dab will do ya?

In places
The average
Evinces
A district council
Sort of mind

In places the average evinces a district council sort-of mind

The fall of Sort-Of

This stranger finesse

Quiddity and essence [eidos]

Qualities are not oils
Hot oils

A story about definition
Would have to begin
With massage oil being
warmed in the hands
Of a serious dark-haired
--needle scratches record--