I do have to stand up for this.
Thirst Petition
For my mother, the Semitic ghost in white skin
Among certain continental American things--
The paved streets; modern, integrated men; feelings
Contracted; and nothing but parking lot trees
to shed their bark
Above the graves of women, guiding their shades
Toward the flower's namesake's goddess who puts to sleep
Those who perjure, daughter of Thomas
And the cloud nymph Electra,
Is this what it is
To be raced at the end of a long line of pricks?
Iris,
I open my mouth
Under your ewer pouring the Styx.