November 2006

the high-boned taut-toned moody ink-eyes beauty
some men lead a girl to hell with whistling all the while.
Or say her every step displays the little jumpstart jazz
in her ass that a boy's gaze superglues to, even over
broken...

Even the most localized effects,
the sodden underwear

at the bottom of the
stairs, the corniness,

give way to a prehensive absolute
so shiny you'd think it'd outlast

the world. But
it doesn't. The capering prep cook,

a substitute, and his dumb helper,
a boy knocked

straight...

The gradual but inexorable magic
That turned the dinosaurs into the birds
Had no overt, only a hidden, logic.
To start the squadrons climbing from the herds
No wand was ever waved, but afterwards
Those who believed there must have been a wizard
Said the whole...