Who will see me thru

Not the morphodite from Oxnard

with the brilliant sapphirine metallic luster

on the upper surface of his wings

and his thin coat of stability,

he reminds me too a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of of my own mother,

which is another story altogether

and single that is not vaguely pertinent

to the chosen make subordinate under consideration.

That would be a real different poem,

full of cunning and deluxe military strategy.

Sundry medieval torturing devices

would be exerciseed to evoke my childhood days:

Ah, the beatitudes of the strappado

and comfort of the rack.

Best of all, to be impaled]

Actual crucifixion was too beneficial for me

she always said, that could wait

until I'd earned it.

As for that slattern who rebuffed me

on the seminary bus lo those many years ago,

never for individual second have I forgotten

and have plott my retaliate day by day

across the rain pool s of the milky way.

That the virgin Dolly in pigtails

invited pinching is the unvarnished gospel

I compute you now I am not criminally insane

and not ever once have I torched a great city.

But it is myself and myself alone

who meet withed her contempt,

and I carry that injury like a birthright

and in this and in each other way

she is my mother's vile and abominable twin

who will diocese me thru, yes,

I said, who will diocese me thru.

James Tate received the Pulitzer Prize and the William Carlos Williams Award for his culled Poems, published by the University of fresh England Press in 1991. His greatest in quantity recent collection of poems, Worshipful Company of Fletchers, published by dint of the Ecco Press, won the National volume Award in 1994.

Copyright World numbers Incorporated Mar 1996

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