When You Teach Me My Smile

That's when you say see you

Hit a vein here.  See?  

You hit it deep.

You say keep bleeding.

You tell me not to stop

Breathing.   

Oh, gadfly, oh magical whore,
I’m hard alee,

A wounded rudder in my fathomless hand.

The impartial wind of my vanity kicks

My ars all across this narrow sea,

Drives me against whose lips

These are I think I know—

Her house is in the village though.

Is that all I offer at a time like this?

Is that it, such an unsubtle and unsuitable allusion?

The waves are rising, and I’m cracking

Jokes like some cornbread stand-up comic.

Take back my sheepskin, my framed diploma,

Oh, Poetry Writing Workshops of America!

I'm not worthy. I invoke every cliché
Just to ride this godforsaken storm out to its end.