Starts

for Gil Helmick

* Damned lethargy! I crave sleep; I breathe fatigue; I fall into it; sleep is all I care for. It’s so hard! * for a lover Your breasts are the eyes of an Egyptian goddess, larger than human eyes, eyes only three thousand years could profane. * I live on the shore of a dangerous sea. For excitement, I calmly walk across it, while heavy beasts which rush, roar, and froth start waves to lap softly at my heels. Only the daring machinations of these beasts content me. They and their iron and rubber practice the tediousness of murderers. They are the Jonahs of the anti-Christ! The leviathans of tunnel-vision! Stopping at nothing, greedy for guilt, they urge on their own rush to perdition. * Liberating technicalities! Words at all costs! Mere words!

24 April 1981