It's all, and: With Capsicum

It's all

gelid torpor and a lab rat on ecstasy. A full three months gone by    and still no word from the warden.

        Irascible freedom and the heartburnthat comes too.

            Modifiers, I'm done with you: milk stout,a case full, these lollipops of grandeur

    popping the question over and over:

        how many licks does it take to get to—

Obedience, sultry lovechild, rescind your hold            on me. I want personality,    and I want it now.                No second-best lemon curd or domed

soufflé that makes my lover puddle. Her small hands, muscled and fraternizing    with the cab fare.                Let's quit him already. Let's lap it up good.

Don't talk shop with me—I'm not your schoolmarm;                                    I'm not your run of the mill.I'll drive a wedge,                a hard bargain, between your selves; I'll light a fire

under your seat. In terms of the consumption of wine,                        we drank a lot, baby,

we had our fill, our cups runneth, our heat off, our fire on,    our master class in bells and whistles.

With Capsicum

I thought I saw how the story got told.And I gave it everything.

—Sarah Manguso

There in the curve, a full pepper, a mother with her too-smalllove, a father loosing his lungs, sighing. Look: I will not hold youlonger. Love is a rusting fire escape and the city is rangy. Awoman handling grapefruits. Oh, what citrus can! People trot incircles, tracks with dogs at their heels. The same reason haircutsare exhilarating. All those curls on the floor, the headiness of thatlight toss. Systemic hyperventilation in the black apron. Thickknuckled fingers around the pepper's heft and glow. Abundanceby design. Novels upon novels, a career of obsession. How stasis,how want. How women count eternity in days. Say lover as inpast. Now slink through the salmonberries. The rows pulse.Upturned radishes in their beds. Cut capsicum soaking in oil.Artichokes mouthing want, want.