A Practice Known as Churning
By Alli Warren
I went to the city some days
to learn my master's pleasure
& laid fort at the farthest place
where hedges are highest
& terror of the obvious
is a rosary of similitude
Did you see some of the nudging?
How did you feel about the nudging?
Boats by water and wagons by land
in active assistance in perpetuating
fraudulent froth & hence
with haste I've seen
their mulchy tongues
suck up every animate aim
sweeping excess into piles
the reserves and neocons
administrators and representatives
the preachers and deputies
and yahoos and spodies
In the evenings they come down
from their operational sectors
to kiss the children
what terror is in them
to keep the sugar boiling
to restrain the wanderings
as fragile and fictitious
Did you see the tent on a stick?
Did you see the architecture of gathering?
I go to the city some days
to gather what's left of scrubgrass
There in the alley we converse
Idris his love of fresh skim
Ted his disdain for women
their lack of banking
Terrence and Will their concern
for purity of pussy
power precedes them
sap-drenched
& parceled
across the land
I go to the city some days I receive a letter
Dear Comrades
don't get it twisted
never lick the hand that lashes you
use beef when you run out of oakum
Copyright Credit: Alli Warren, "A Practice Known as Churning" from Here Come the Warm Jets, City Lights Spotlight No. 10. Copyright © 2013 by Alli Warren. Reprinted by permission of City Lights Books.
Source: Here Come the Warm Jets (City Lights Books, 2013)