nautical protocol

I see if it fits it must be worn
therefore I don this adornment
like Nureyev in the mantle of the sun
Corpus Hypercubicus

the great world
has its insupportabilities
all the same
and the high leaven
is the same as marzipan
in the long run

rump-a-dump-dump
for a preluding
to the main game

these are concords and rituals
to swell the main
afflatus

imposthume of the several
coaxial
cables

reading about the same
backwards as forwards
of the Manchester School

diversion is another
placated be
to not afterwheres
in that trundlebed the
licking flames
from throughout
great the empire whole
unchanging first to
last in the diet
the in last to first
unchanging whole empire
the great throughout
from flames licking the trundlebed
that in afterwheres
not to be placated
another is diversion

haps it how this
how is this hap

squirrel the tree that's a lighting pole
and dangle along the wires
mob a mockingbird lost in the trees

I will carve upon the marble
the headless Chopin
receiving Muses
the garrulous and radiant

for there is a pitch past bearing
and the screen is down
upon Mrs. Teazle

which if it is fancied
ornament-encrusted
and the savor of the lame bidden rise
be cast upon it
or the nightingale
is rather less than the point of view I'm aiming at












vectors

part skill and part skullduggery
light into apertures flares
homely as sin

tall tarts and wiggy mountebanks
climb the rungs
to another hangout

the difference says who to blame
is you

at the glass counter selecting your ice cream












Christopher Mulrooney has written poems and translations in The Newport Review, The Drunken Boat, Burning Leaf, Segue, Chiron Review, Crate and Voices Israel, and criticism in Parameter, The Film Journal and Pyramid.






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