Judith Goldman

Treachery abounds, look inwards! Your bird jangles its small swing. You’re getting sleepy, very sleepy. In a vulnerable tyranny. Leave for now the marksmen to their desolations, they ruin everyday life. & luck can’t do anything about the undying devotion of the undead, putting their backs to the bus shelter while crumbs still stick to the dishes. I guess someone is a king of France & apart from whom nobody is a king of France. Same rockstar, different poem. I like icons & the toxic halos of figureheads, I like to beat people up & rehash among the swan. I was born in captivity, having fucked the right people, thick in the France of it. The uniform you design may still be stripped & not in some pleasant mannerism. I guess treachery abounds & scruple keys the addresses out of their shining wrappers. I guess gin relieves the need for whiskey, I guess I can think as well as talk. Come to think of it, I spoke to your exo- skeleton. It had been sacked for cribbing a back salary from your stunt double. I watched you chewing & the human body is a great mystery. Sun, look out for yourself. Embody your own adaptation. You’ve got no corner on fire & marauders upbraid those vehicles invisible to them. Nobody is a king of France, licked all over like a stamp, my every garbage at the actual border, making it, making it over, taking up the slack. The bottle broke in your bag & you’re getting flammable, very flammable. Luck knows nothing, peels down like a stocking & I thought, why wait any longer, & found myself caught in the breast of the beast as it staggered to carry me up the stairs. His clothes are dirty, but his hands are a sumptuous pyre. What’s so perfect about a stranger, the greasy smoke of being swallowed up or disappearing. I can’t carry the remainder.

inside the bottle with the ship were several Drowned sailors elegy acts on inward skies what you imagine about radio waves these elegant machines bend sinister sentience itself, disordering of the senses, sentimental disgust, disuse, unease by palliative measures supply sufficient echoes to eliminate our organs scattered bones prove the date of the body they are rexed beyond the farthest shoal consumed by a mosaic, a forest of saltshakers an obstinate minor puzzle at my bidding everything is procedural a relative view is counterintuitive, journalism is not written by journalists the diaspora was juggled, then slain intercept a preferred designator a kernal, a Trophy low birth fashioned a hallmark swagger to replace geometrical dreams with scant leviathans: is this an improvement? where is the life that later I led how to account for the strategems, in what I am weakest exemplify I am departed, protean twinned stick figures cut up drawings with scissors, put the pieces in their pockets, confidence in shapes . . . this picture is not very accurate inner turmoil is as oblique as how fair realism fares the objects of its attention; externalized or just compacted to a fêted untouchable Vitamin doll exception spines boundary what kind of skirts are outskirts a primitive, endangered mahogany mask, a convict’s garb, soil cleared from weeds. these teeth sown won’t become full grown: prey talks foreign; heads hang in the halls. habit is only two dimensional, as with any tool barbarous cattle, drudgery of ammunition, improper use of artificial blue collars I died of foliage; I died of typed patterns on carbon paper; I died of a chief delight. fare thee well, crackpot. I break a sweat, the dish is still cold read my Palm, do what it says it’s time that we get up on all fours

[imprisonment boom has developed] [a built-in growth dynamic] [the number of prisoners continues to grow while crime drops] [and had even prevented] [Crime never does stay down for long] [experts say] [though crime has been declining for six years] [In 1996, the incarcera- tion rate for black men was] [eight times the rate for white men] [Crime never does stay down for long] [experts say] [a built-in growth dynamic] [independent of crime] [Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals] [and had even prevented] [Crime never does stay] [recent radio interview] [sheriff] [declared proudly] [“sexually explic- it”] [he has formed the first women’s chain gang] [in the world] [More than two-thirds of the prisoners] [pre-trial defendants] [sheriff] [defines “sexually explicit” as] [“personal photographs, drawings, mag- azines, and pictorials that show frontal nudity”] [if that painting would affect prison security] [the judge agreed] [allowing materials depicting “frontal nudity” in the cells] [could lead to] [harassment of female guards, creating a “hostile work environment”] [sheriff] [declared proudly] [formed the first women’s chain gang] [on more than 500 talk shows] [“sexually explicit”] [Some expressed the opinion] [American marines and officials had done too little] [to dig out] [victims from the rubble] [in the crucial early hours of the disaster] [and had even prevented] [Some expressed the opinion] [materials depicting frontal nudity] [could lead to unconstitu- tional conditions] [including excessive use of force against inmates] [deliberate indifferent to inmates’ serious medical needs] [creating a “hostile work environment”] [those who died were] [all Tanzanians employed by the embassy] [including excessive use of force against inmates and deliberate indifference] [to dig out] [victims from the rub- ble] [“environment”] [materials depicting frontal nudity] [could lead to conflict among pris- oners] [two inmates could get into a fight if the atheist said, “Look at the size of the genitals on Jesus Christ”] [materials depicting nudity] [are “reasonably likely” to be] [the cause of violence] [a Michelangelo painting of a nude Christ] [an inmate] [was banned from having Playboy delivered to his cell] [if that painting would affect a prison securi- ty] [experts say] [“Look at the size of the”] [sheriff] [relatives of victims expressed a quiet outrage] [“personal pho- tographs”] [too little to help] [Kenyans were paying with their lives for American foreign policy decisions] [a built-in growth dynamic] [embassies will always be vulnerable] [searchng for survivors] [They are not designed to be armed forts in hostile territory] [“We trained cameras on the street”] [“suspicious vehicles were reported”] [The larg- er the number of prisoners] [experts say] [the bigger the number of people who will someday be released] [There were no American deaths in the Tanzanian bombing, officials said] [to help them extricate] [including excessive use of force] [several Kenyan rescue workers complained] [American marines and other American officials] [and had even prevented] [them from taking dead Kenyans out of the embassy] [from searching for survivors there] [And embassies will always be vulnerable] [“personal photographs, draw- ings, magazines, and pictorials that show frontal nudity”] [are reason- ably likely] [to be] [the cause of violence] [“If it’s a war between the Americans and other people, they should take the war elsewhere”] [to help them extricate people] [Many of the inmates are housed in tents] [in hostile territory] [there were no American] [quiet outrage] [frontal nudity] [either because of their own criminal propensities or] [a Michelangelo painting of a nude Christ] [in the crucial early hours of the disaster] [rescue workers] [Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals] [“If it’s a war between the Americans and other people”] [sheriff] [if that painting would affect] [armed forts in hostile territory] [to help them extricate people] [either because of their own criminal propensities or] [will always be vulnerable] [Many relatives of the victims] [of racial dispari- ty in the nation’s prisons] [materials depicting “frontal nudity” could lead to conflicts among prisoners] [though crime has been declining] [the incarceration rate for black men was eight times the rate for white men] [either because of their own criminal propensities or] [more than 500 talk shows] [Several Kenyan rescue workers complained] [Crime never does stay down] [including excessive use of force] [there are also sharp regional differences] [7 of the 10 states] [being in the South] [the incarceration rate] [banned from having Playboy] [“should take the war elsewhere”] [harrassment of female guards] [unconstitutional conditions] [excessive use of] [Drug Enforcement Administration] [drug crimes constituted the biggest source of growth for female inmates] [statistical branch of the Justice Department] [housed in tents] [materials depicting “frontal nudity”] [a Michelangelo painting of a nude Christ] [drug crimes] [deliberate indifference to medical needs] [if the atheist said] [“sexually explicit”] [“personal photographs”] [recent radio interview] [“most people who work in the prison business”] [“don’t look for drops in crime”] [due process] [Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals] [the larger the number of prisoners] [Several Kenyan rescue workers complained] [dig out victims from the rubble] [“most people who work in the prison business”] [independent of crime rate] [female inmates] [depicting “frontal nudity”] [American foreign policy deci- sions] [statistical branch of the Justice Department] [Playboy] [“should take the war elsewhere”] [either because of their own criminal propen- sities or] [American] [black men] [will always be vulnerable] [because they are not designed] [if a painting could affect] [being in the South] [Michelangelo] [“We trained cameras”] [“personal photographs”] [“suspicious vehicles”] [the judge agreed] [Playboy] [in his cell] [female inmates] [“frontal nudity”] [female guards] [in the crucial early hours of] [Playboy] [those who died were all] [the cause of violence] [or their experience behind bars] [Drug Enforcement Administration] [“most people who work in the prison business”] [sheriff] [because they are not designed] [either because of] [the larger the number of prisoners] [Crime never does] [show “frontal nudity”] [the first women’s chain gang] [Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals] [of racial disparity] [while crime drops] [and had even prevented] [Christ] [the cause of violence] [American marines and officials] [has helped reduce] [black men] [due process] [rate for black men was] [stay down] [“Look at the size of the”] [Drug Enforcement Administration] [number of prisoners] [incarceration rate] [“If it’s a war”] [on the street] [get into a fight] [get into a fight if the atheist said] [American marines and officials had done too little to help] [Michelangelo]