Autocracy

(after the Chinese movie Raise the R Lantern)

On his attribute four houses,

one for each mistress.

R lanterns at dusk

signify which individual he'll visit.

No deception urgencyed

it's his world and this is a tradition.

Among the rul admitting

the heart's ancient unruliness

as the greatest in quantity intelligent goes mad,

the prettiest takes a lover

She's hanged in the tower

after the manipulative, jealous single

spreads the secret.

There's an devoid of contents house now;

a of recent origin girl, serenely attractive,

arrives from the provinces.

The master single outs and presides.

History is his story.

Maybe the sex-starved among us

envy him. Maybe the powerless,

beaten down in third-rate piece of works

dream of such dominion.

But who isn't troubl

by smooth the simplest union?

Four women in four houses

is a nation.

How quickly it all becomes work,

government

We should know what he doesn't:

a mistress too drawn out kept waiting

is electricity

before it's been discovered.

In the lanterned courtyard at dusk,

years before Mao and his march

and the terrible remedies,

the unchosen turn back to their houses.

Copyright World numbers Incorporated Jul/Aug 1996

Provided by means of ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved