If in Its Advance the Plague Begins to Fiercen
Virgil
Tomorrow you will be stung by a bee.Tonight a cute boy lays his cock on yourhi. You invite him to your no. You invite his cockTo no it down. And if you are not doing This. And if you are notDoing That. What do you invite him to turn to. In?You invite what slumber mutely passes for.Sheet fisted into balls. The cross hatchings of your patternStunned into forever shuns. Oh. So this is howI towel throw. So tricky. Throat what little. Left ofThe blithe night is the right thing you did not turnSoon enough to hook. This mistook won't be forgiven.Misdeeds booked by whom? Tomorrow you will be stungBy a bee. It will kill you. You will die intoThe hard pit of a date.
Feature Date
- October 4, 2019
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Copyright © 2019 by Lillian-Yvonne Bertram
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
Lillian-Yvonne Bertram is the author of Personal Science (Tupelo Press), a slice from the cake made of air (Red Hen Press), But a Storm is Blowing From Paradise (chosen by Claudia Rankine as winner of the 2010 Red Hen Press Benjamin Saltman Award), the chapbook cutthroat glamour (Phantom Books), and the artist book Grand Dessein (Container). As of this writing Lillian-Yvonne Bertram resides in Massachusetts and is Director of the MFA program at UMass-Boston.
Tucson, Arizona
University of Arizona Tucson
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