Taking on the Local Color: Poems

Via Negativa

Via Negativa The beautiful boys wear summer on their feet, kick loose stones, adjust collars against Hong Kong cashmere, lean looking into the sun. They smile small smiles into the sun overcome with love. With love for that which never is, never is not, is not this or that, does not sink into voids being the void, that throbs at center, a severed limb of the imagination threatening, oh Mnemosyne, to quicken into life. How Dionysus the Aeropagite knew his saint on that dusty road, exchanged pseudonyms, helped arrange his load of darkness, broken glass, we may well ask. Paul made him a Christian, took him to task for his long hair, his heathen name. Cleanliness, he said, was next to godliness, could he, decked out like a Persian whore have fame, or sit at Christ's table? So goes the fable. At this the beautiful boys yawn. Inexcusable intrusion of the brash word... . It has given them a pain that cuts the temple; caryatids fall. Then a snort of sense may smooth the universe; soothing their large lapels they sneeze, order sweet drinks, and sneeze again. Napoleon was known to sneeze as well, 62 62 Via Negativa The beautiful boys wear summer on their feet, kick loose stones, adjust collars against Hong Kong cashmere, lean looking into the sun. They smile small smiles into the sun overcome with love. With love for that which never is, never is not, is not this or that, does not sink into voids being the void, that throbs at center, a severed limb of the imagination threatening, oh Mnemosyne, to quicken into life. How Dionysus the Aeropagite knew his saint on that dusty road, exchanged pseudonyms, helped arrange his load of darkness, broken glass, we may well ask. Paul made him a Christian, took him to task for his long hair, his heathen name. Cleanliness, he said, was next to godliness, could he, decked out like a Persian whore have fame, or sit at Christ's table? So goes the fable. At this the beautiful boys yawn. Inexcusable intrusion of the brash word.... It has given them a pain that cuts the temple; caryatids fall. Then a snort of sense may smooth the universe; soothing their large lapels they sneeze, order sweet drinks, and sneeze again. Napoleon was known to sneeze as well, loudly and on the maps. Soldiers fell as, snuffling, he ordered out his right. (Here they yawn again.) All or nothing said the Corsican. He blew his nose, looked upon his son, and rose to his insignificant height. Are the beautiful boys everpolite? No. They merely are. They exist, sleek, soft, in the eye of the sun. Leaning on cars, on small gray men, they swear vile procreation at nothing in particular. 63 loudly and on the maps. Soldiers fell as, snuffling, he ordered out his right. (Here they yawn again.) All or nothing said the Corsican. He blew his nose, looked upon his son, and rose to his insignificant height. Are the beautiful boys ever polite? No. They merely are. They exist, sleek, 50ft, in the eye of the sun. Leaning on cars, on small gray men, they swear vile procreation at nothing in particular. ...