Neil Fischer

Yes, a chalice: held up high As if it were an elixir instead of dead-leaf soup. But peek out with your watery eye. That's right: over the lip of the thing you're in. An opera house can smell like iron, cologne. Aesthetes and snoozers a thrill Mired under chandeliers, but Can thrills be mired? Of course! And smells Can make you sad, even When they're clouding up the hall near midnight, And everyone is clapping, clapping. The audience stinks of aging privilege. A chalice that might have held a Eucharist, Or a swimmer made of kissable puddles, But instead it holds you With your impulses which molder—O What do you know, Unreason fornicating with itself? You get heavier when I plea. Are you nothing but chemistry With a sick sense of humor? Willy-nilly chemicals elope! But why bother to marry When all they have to do is fuck My mind and make you justice of the peace? Are there no annulments in the offing? You are not so interesting. You care too much, or not enough. Inhale bad breath from the row behind. Sniff back what Spilleth, spilleth as if from a nose. (Do Renaissance verbs turn you quaint?) Nettles on your funk-wet wings. You're greedy To escape from and into The vowel in the tenor's mouth. His costume could have stench of urine. For God's sake don't pour yourself. Think: clear pond. Think: man at river's edge Who knows the difference Between desecration and redemption.

As if the moon could haul through you Its tremor of light and stone, Be cleared of sound. Plough The mind's noise until it's a shine In the purl of south-bending river that bears Itself toward a blacker part of the forest. If you hum, hum through the motes of air, Perhaps your nerves will find at last A tone to which they will succumb. Be still. Be not so heavy-hearted For a moment. All is not a tomb, Blind sarcophagus staring dumb, thwarted Pleasures nailed inside. These fireflies Sweep their tracings on the evening. Weep if you must, but board what falls Away, abdomens flaring— The brief, nomadic intervals.