Monday, March 19, 2007

Double

SEDUCTION WITH KISSINGER

A bad start, to be sure: no one would want that
decade with all its napalm and polyester, its not yet
dead disco. And never Kissinger, rumbling,
sexless, bad suit, bad tie, plotting war
crimes with almost remarkable alacrity. Almost,
I said. Let’s not dream of his fire.
Enough now to dowse. This was your dare
or mine or both of ours or God
knows who thought it up, this poetry
of bad ideas, this love poem
that on the face of things, his,
(the last of him here, good bye, so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen,
adieu) should defeat every
iteration of the erotic
from now until, well, who knows?
Grim math, that. Darling,
Mississippi and March,
they open like the camellias
in your yard. And there is always a darkness
and a bottle and a blade
and something dropped
down into water
and this prayer
for powerful forgetfulness.
Such as I am capable of.
Which, really, let us be truthful for all the miles,
is not much, is no great
thing. I’m human,
I think it means,
my head threaded with the flash
of how many million
nerves, and not so many dreams or pains. Or joys,
no one need say to all this
silence. Love, I am
thinking of your skin,
your immodest morning skin
and sunlight
and this half-remembered poem by Li Po.
Everything, every last thing
belongs to the river,
his, enlivened even through all the years,
and the moon and fireflies
beading the night
with their own lust. So
too would I glow
were I able, were you near enough to see.

5 comments:

Erin Elizabeth said...

you are my hero. truly.

Anonymous said...

So glad to see you back in the blogosphere, Paul. And with a stellar poem nonetheless.

Steph

Anonymous said...

I don't mean to trivialize your poem, but there was once an episode of Designing Women where the women were playing charades with their significant others and some bimbo character that the women all felt sexually threatened by. So, they decide to give the bimbo a charade topic that is completely nonsexual--Kissinger. The bimbo kisses all of their boyfriends and one of them guesses it correctly. I don't know how necessary this post is; I just wanted to share my association.

Anonymous said...

Guess you have to be a Washingtonian to know that Kissinger was anything but sexless. There's a man that got around. Alot.

Anonymous said...

who ever he or she is...your love...a lucky mo-fo..paul yur great!