My readings have always contained two sections.
There's been a carnal section, a carnality section
and the mortality section.
[LAUGHTER]
And at the beginning, the carnality section
was extended and powerful.
The mortality section was very short.
And now, it's the other way around.
[LAUGHTER]
It'll come to you all, too.
[LAUGHTER]
Anyway, as this is a selected poems
drawn from my entire work, I can at least remember.
This is for anybody who's feeling peckish.
Artichoke.
The nubbed leaves come away in a tease of green,
thinning down to the membrane.
The quick purpled beginnings of the male.
Then the slow hairs of the heart,
the choke that guards its trophy, its vegetable goblet.
The meat of it lies displayed, upended, al dente,
the stub root aching in its oil.