(on viewing the sculptures at the Speed Museum)

I:

Gray

Silk

Tonnage

Sex

         of a complete nation

Bristling

         with the flesh

Of a thousand mothers of gods.

 

Fortress, lagoon, I don’t remember

Falling into

But here I am swimming

         in serene sand.

 

II:

Monster dove-heart

Hums

Swallows my head,

A dainty massiveness

         eating my eyes for a snack.

 

My chest balloons and a hail

Of children falls out of me.

         They laugh. I laugh.

They stop laughing. I stop laughing.

         They laugh again

And new laughter shoots from my shoes

And I am a clown with tongues for feet.

 

Lady Gargantua, your finger snaps

And I crawl under the whistle

Of the swing of the axe

In your fresh honed eyes

Carving me out of the blue buzzing air.