Fancy Beasts - Alex Lemon

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this

      ultimate torture test. You say

       your foot is killing you?—well,

      hot damn, you are dead

       nuts, right on. That is the essence

      of all of this, isn’t it? So let me tell you—

       they begin as piles of bones,

      the animals in my dreams do.

       Each night, they clink & clonk

      & rise like a time-lapse video

       of skyscraper construction.

      One animal turns into a man

       & the man gives birth

      to a dead dog. In just seconds

       the other animals have rent them apart

      & then, I’m awake. Night swallows

       knife through the morning

      fog as I stand at the window

       listening to the coyote song.

      My entire body is killing me,

       & I have witnessed my own death

      & lived—I whisper my wagers

       against disaster into the dark air.

      haunt

      In the beginning there was

       the beginning there was bafflement

       in the beginning there was

       in the beginning the bewildered

       asking questions you’ve got to be kidding there was bafflement in the eyes in the beginning & then in the beginning there was blood in the mouth there was blood there the blood was thimblefuls & cups & then whole slopping rivers baffled & bewildered in the beginning with footsmears of blood the train tracks & song all baffling lines of clouds never moving & what waves from the backseat of cars that little hand that wonders what it means to have your face scalped neatly away & hung in a loose mask over the back of your skull the grotesqueries of this place can you imagine wearing such a bloody thing what happened to the beginning? the bodies of murdered children are dumped at the edge of town oh it’s time lord everyone must go

      the floppy instant

      FOR MA

      I felt like I was

       In the presence

      Of dynamite,

       Deserving of

      Everything. Outside,

       The hallway bubbled—

      Travelers realizing

       They had something

      Better in mind.

       It is the human

      Situation, stewing

       & bewildered

      With insignificance.

       There’s a vastness

      Of form & content

       In airports that can

      Only be bridged

       By a complex

      Framework of hatreds

       That herald the dark.

      There is something I love

       About the wolves lying

      In wait. I am a friend

       Of the animals.

      here comes the mojo

      The theme of this place is

       Go big & sloppy. So call me

      Back & let’s cuddle. We’ve got to get

       This thing started. Let’s spoon until

      It goes dark. Until our organs

       Are cut out of prone, bathtub-

      Cradled bodies. A jack-in-the-box

       On the toilet. Long for what you

      Always find in your pockets instead

       Of flinching when your shrunken

      Head springs out of the toy box

       Like a sock monkey. Stop, drop

      & roll doesn’t work because you can’t

       Feel your body. The shower spits on.

      Vomit clogs the drain. Oh how it changes

       Everything—this kind of kingliness.

      Let yourself feel it. Let it come

       Down. You are the amphetamine

      & midnight Vegas type

       Of Elvis. Mad eyed & hip shaking—

      Cherry, cherry, spin—gimme

       Gimme that jackpot of believing.

      california hates you

      The golden rat reclines & gnaws on the aloe

       plant with the sky empty of clouds this

      day just like yesterday & the one before it if you

       think I’m going to cum with the curtains

      not open you don’t know me at all my breath taken

       away it is a shame we have to say good-bye

      every seven years to our old flesh all those jackets

       of flaking skin my closet is filled with them

      the blurry year of sunlight making the last one rough

       as corduroy like bacon like turned & dried out

      garden dirt instead it might be nice if the layers piled

       & grew atop each other so the world’s weight

       might be something shoulderable something to shift

       to the other arm as you whoosh open

      your enormous umbrella when the deluge starts

       purpledark & splatting the sidewalk on down

      beautification campaign

      Liposuction for everyone who can recite

       the Pledge of Allegiance! Lip gloss, Lee

       Press-On Nails arrive weekly in the mail.

       The turkey is always fat free & the cottage

       cheese is nothing but protein. Helicopters

       drop leaflets, but in truth, no one understands

       the food pyramid. & so I’m inconsolable—

       I can’t get rid of these love handles. The woman

       in the radio tells me to eat more hearts

       of palm but I don’t know

       what they look like. Bundles of skin-

       tight tracksuits are thrown on each stoop

       like the morning paper & I think gastric

       bypass is the answer for me. I stay up late

       & cut out coupons for Botox injections,

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