We're winding down and as Whitman would probably say,
every poetry reading should include a naked snake dance.
So, one of the detours that I've taken
so far in the manuscript on my way
to the underworld where Walt is, is through the Garden of Eden.
And, this is one of those poems, which
I think Carl is going to do a broadside of which I'm
excited about.
It's called "Serpentine."
"A glimpse of the under yellow, lazy, hairpin turn in the tree.
This wheedle-bodied, onyx-eyed, peacocky, slug of a creature.
This glitter of the brain stem.
This please, baby.
Draped where wasps were zeroing like memory in dessert wines.
This red zagged, zig backed, smooth groover,
marbled the big branch and hung out.
Mr. Mother Tongue.
Everywhere he was, was horizon, belt
and buckling and undulation.
The groin's syllable and the sleep fuck.
Mr. Do Me.
Mr. Rewind.
Never enough to go around.
Never enough to heat his blood.
This sidewinder, heart binder.
This hell belly with a body like a reel, dangled before her.
Threw his voice into her, until even the mynas
couldn't tell the truth.
But at the stations of bewilderment
touch is always first.
The fruit dropped violet, seedy.
The Capri fig unseaming in her palm of egg genitalia, which
she swallowed.
And bitter sweetened saw him go up the sleeve of darkness.
The all embraceable, the wrap around, the slow ride,
the tunnel of love."