Pagan Princess
Athena cools my temples with peppermint oil.
Aphrodite unwrinkles my brow.
Zeus insists I try a skewer of his roast lamb.
Apollo, knowing I like to sleep late, only drops by after sunset.
Artemis likes to witch-hunt with me in occult bookstores.
Of course, any polytheist knows conflicts are bound
to arise due to the separation of supernatural powers.
Hera thinks I live in a pigsty.
Pan finds it funny to scare me at inopportune moments,
when I most want to make a good impression.
Hermes can’t believe how lost I get, going in circles
covering the same ground.
Makes it up by letting me share his password to see
foreign movies from all over the galaxy.
Every now and then, even lets me borrow his winged sandals.
Gnostic Tuesday
They live among us.
The Incognito—
those who know
but do not tell.
*
I said, “The weather is nice today.”
To which he replied,
with a shrug indicating the trees,
cars, sunshine,
as if across the street
were another world,
“I don’t care anything
about what goes on out there.”
What Did I Do With My King Lear?
I saw it.
It’s here.
I even took it
down off the shelf
and said,
“Here’s King Lear.”
Then I put it back.
There used to be
two of them.
We got rid of one.
But the other is here
somewhere.
Ah, there’s King Lear!
Where was he?
He was sitting
right next to
Ezra Pound’s
Guide to Kulchur.
Rivermovie
Is slow-moving
when watched
from the train station
by strangers who
share the sunset
like a bottle of rosé.
