DEATH FOR THE POOR
after Baudelaire


        death is the soothe and the
        drive of it) ends with the hope that can
                ride us and blunt us and give us the
                        heart to trudge on through the night and the

                        storm and the slush and the weediness.
                floodlights that buzz in the lot of our
        dimming motel with the all-you-can-
        eat and a bible. they turn down your

                bed and this angel will make you feel
        drowsy. she gives you wet dreams then she
                washes the sheets. in the name of the-

        odicy goddesses: wages of
                sin and the mortgages paid by the
        lives of the poor (and the doorways

                are hinging for more

(from the archives, circa 2002)