Lenny
DellaRocca
Far
Amusement of Statues
Someone in
a fear dress comes
with
her ruler
to measure the far amusement
of
statues
Nickels gleam from rose garden
birdbaths
as the trilluim begin their viola lesson
My
mother
wipes the beaks of blackbirds with vinegar
attempting
to order the ambiguous names of their trill
The
woman
in the fear dress strikes the ground
with
a cherry rod
inflicting the deaf with the sound of rare fruit
and
science
The statues rape summer with their long
white
gowns
Even the humidity is a grateful thing,
my
mother says
The viola urges mythology to sing while
a man
in a
sackcloth tapestry orders Aegean Sea
jam
from a waitress with a lawsuit in her hands
The
elephants
dance the way they did in Egypt when
Cleopatra
shaved her cunt and let the serpent slide
between
her legs
All this for Reason, the sophist sighs,
tomorrow
is blind
No matter how independent the police act
they
never see
the rows of people writing down the story
Ruined
by music
and crime, the woman steals the tongue of Jesus
The line
of hypnotists in Buicks honk
their
horns
driving past the cafe in bright sunlight
like
a huge
glass painting in the streets of Prague
Someone
demands altruism and dogma for Christmas
Taxidermy
is another lost art in Europe, my mother says
The
woman
in the fear dress blames her father for her sins
The
2River View, 3_3 (Spring 1999)
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