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Boxcar Arthur and Other Myth Nothing has been more literal Than endings of the Symbolists: Verlaine’s long litigation, debt, Cirrhosis, pot shots, hemorrhoids; The ants and bees of Maeterlinck; Ear-trumpet of the deaf Corbière; And Rimbaud? Trafficking in slaves, Or I am Sindbad at full sail. In Paris rain may fall in heart And fall in town, but on the red, Salt coast of Ethiopia It does not rain at all. A roof Of tin, a half-height wall of palm fronds . . . He who is his mother’s child Outdoes her in the wares he trades, The rents he lives on. In this case, Yes, Mother was to blame. The worst Of the provincial bourgeoisie. And of the live-in hellion, The targeted boy genius (More bluntly, call-boy genius) Much must endure. One would not care To be a houseboy in Harar, Or owe the Agency. Attacked In boxcars by the Army? Him? As likely as the fantasy He ceased to write. Who knows, by now, How much he shredded? Did he use For pseudonym Pierre Loti? 47 You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. Their talents are not unalike. He planned to marry. Whom? La Veuve Verlaine, if he could outlive Paul? A burned-out Brahms and Bourbon Clara, Nothing learned and naught forgot. But Symbolists as a profession Scorn to be consecutive. So we, confronted with the tough, Ill slaver going home to die, May honor. Only disconnect, As E. M. Forster should have said. All honor, as they should, all those Who have no choice, and bite the shot. What is the opposite of pack And follow? Pack, and burn the bridge Behind one? There are fires and fires. Ex-trick has cancer in his knee. If he outlived, like Bernhardt, loss Of leg and lived another fifteen years, Would he outwrite that other, prose Discontinuity J. Conrad Korzeniowski? Possibly. Out of the vacant eyes of death The all-forgiving symbol stares. 48 You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. ...

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