New and Selected Poems, 1957-2011

Post-Modern

64 POST-MODERN (A Mostly Found Poem) —With thanks to Richard Lederer’s Fractured English “Joan of Arc was married to the Biblical Noah.” “The inhabitants of Egypt were called mummies, and built pyramids in the shape of triangular cubes.” “The Pyramids are a range of mountains between France and Switzerland.” he graded his papers and went home to honey. “Areas of the dessert are cultivated by irritation.” honey and the teacher were newlyweds. Filing her nails, she watched some Joan Crawford movie. handed him a joint. “Get your papers graded?” Applying nail polish, honey reached for Cosmopolitan, turned back to the TV Guide. All pink and red she was and full of self-esteem and bounce, teacher’s fluorescent bride. “Now or never,” honey said, her eyes twinkling, “Post-civilization, post-modern, post-Cracker Jack, early unforeseeable, post paradigm. 65 “Now you see it, now you don’t.” “They lived in the Sarah Dessert and traveled by Camelot.” “In the dessert, the climate is such the inhabitants have to live elsewhere.” “Come and get it,” honey called. “Come and get it.” “In Europe, the enlightenment was a reasonable time.” This page intentionally left blank. ...