Classic Poem

Click. .Fade-in America's kid sister selling
the kind of nail polish America's big
incestuous brother goes for … Dissolve
on sister's smile—which yet hangs on
in the Cheshire ether, an aching fixity
of appeal to our marrowmost need
for love, beauty, youth
and nail polish; hangs on
even into the fanfare with which
THANK YOU VERY MUCH THANK YOU
WE ARE HAP THANK YOU HAPPY
TO HAVE WITH US etcetera … Pan
to aquacade, with twenty beauties, forty porpoise thighs
frothing a pear-shaped pool, and enter
NICK DAGRONE (applause) NICK
(applause) … CUTTING A
NEW DISK THIS WEEK (frenzied applause)
… PICTURE YOU'RE MAKING (reverent applause) NICK
IS GOING TO DO A LITTLE NUMBER I KNOW YOU'LL ALL…
Intro … (slow applause—audience
at first incredulous at good luck—
quickens to thunderous acclamation). Girls
in pool revolve, creating
a vortex of flesh—
at the center of which, Da Grone,
America's Electronically Amplified
Idol, seminally murmers behind clenched lids
the inspiration of a nation
of quondam rebels and pioneers…
The vortex of flesh gives a last kick; Nick
droops limply, smiles, and is swept off
in a torrent of gratitude … America
is spent … Click.











By permission of the author.