This is one that I wrote when I was out here last time.
I was trying to write things that
were set in this landscape.
And so there's a place around here called
the Shrine of the Sinners, which I don't know if you all
know about, but which we're adjacent to,
which seems to be a parking lot, but which
has a little shrine there.
And so I wrote a poem called "Ignatz
at the Shrine of the Sinner."
And one thing this refers to is, Ignatz is always
represented as, instead of having any kind of expression,
he just has a V drawn in the middle of his forehead, which
is meant to represent a perpetual scowl.
So this refers to that.
"Ignatz at the Shrine of the Sinners.
Night, like a black glass bell, and the fading echo
of the detox chakras, helpless, helpless, helpless, helpless.
If fleshly importuning were to fall silent,
all those wonderful people out there in the dark.
Each sinner's left behind a little sinner diorama,
model village of laminated photos,
silk flowers, strung with wire.
Ignatz tiptoes unseen through thickets of votive prayer
candles, holding as his candle snuffer an aluminum rose.
And the chorus kicks in.
Ignatz, he's a stalker, or a snicker, or a stain.
The V on his forehead stands for villain or for vain.
O tongueless talker, will you never teach him shame?"