11/20/24

James Loop

I like the milky quality of light in November
I like to think I'm the Roy Orbison of average American gay men
Neo-Nazis are marching in Columbus
I express a second coffee through its shining tin pod and return to the poem

Who does the work gets the work done
Who flees it suffers and is antic and/or morose
Orbison triumphs when my heart heaves to Crying
"I was all right, for a while"
"I could smile, for a while"

Can we see the Sienese painting show
In which long-scattered segments of admired altar pieces
Have been reunited for the first time on our continent
Tambors and timbrels of luscious color
Bent to grave themes

I want to but I can't on Monday
How are the cantons of Switzerland faring
Glacial shrinkage and "rightward drift"?
Does Canton neighbor Columbus?
Is that where he thought he was going?

45 pro-democracy activists have been sentenced to jail in Hong Kong
In Guangzhou a Spaniard in soft thin pants
Sliced me a tomato twelve years ago
In a dark kitchen
Whose window opened onto a thundering ten lane highway
As erotic as it sounds