"The Arthur H. Jellings Collection of Vinaigrettes."
I have it on the best authority –
‘It was a heartless bastard didn’t blub, become involved,
When Les, a ginger temp, his lack of airs…’
A shock to find: I only cry these days at TV reviews, and rue
Instead the indifference, the revenge I’m walked
Through. Fluctuations, periodic surges; must
We poach and diminish, in a centrifugal egg dance? Must
Parts break off? Better to defer to waterfalls, the authority
That shocks unchoked planets of river into icing on the rocky walk-
Way (over half-chewed pills of orange skeet). I became involved
Involuntarily, a curve of fate. Andrew
Was there sometimes, on the banks of the unreconstructed Aire –
That much I remember. And now there’s something in the air,
Which strikes totemic at my guts – a cry that must
Be heard: He’ll take me down, and
Ruthlessly at that. But the long-run is a misleading guide. An author
That too easy, too useless, predicts the ocean calm after a storm. Involve
Yourself in this bended life? I haven’t washed for months, just walk
Into the river and splash water on my face for prayers, walk
Out again unclean and thus: imagined agents plot the poetry, the air,
Of my demise. Riposte riposte. A gaggle of sneaker wings: involved
Moths at an ur-sun. And the fucking triangle, at which I then must
Die. Do you/she talk now that she’s sired? Do those old facts still wield authority?
Do sex-crimes stay your hand? Andrew,
My approach is tricksy, but how else to suggest depth? To turn Gepetto too, and rue
The three degrees? To never call a truce? Know this: I didn’t walk,
I floated, and to unthread the whole magnificent… The Authority
Of the market is no surprise. The very air
That swives these purple plant corns, is as mustard
Seed; or memory, whose price is felt but subject to inflation (is involved
But lacks the agency of waterfalls). I involve
You now, involuntarily – you do not know you are my enemy. And
Rules, like mustard, like cartilage, fathers, are also snaked. This much I must:
Your continued excellence causes entrenchment. I walk
Because I bled favours from your guilt. The air
Is never clear, only scented. You have this on my questionable authority.
Must we involve The
Authorities? Andrew,
We walked on air.
