That thing I call the Death Apparatus: that thing I call the Swallower
of Life: that thing which says The library is closing in its languid voice
adrift from the intercom, which lines us up by the door & holds a gun to
our unblinking eyes, which sees INDETERMINATE LIGHT & quivers
& triggers our skulls into moss, which has spun blankets from unwhite
flesh hung like a beacon from its balcony in the square: which makes a
white square with its membrane of knives: which believes in frames with a
membrane of knives: which lines bodies lengthwise upon each street, which
marks in ink its favored parts: which drools upon its favored parts: which
keeps in the kitchen closet its favored parts: which with proper technique
saws open its favored parts: which one day eats the corpse of the young
with the apple in its mouth & toasts its goblet to the chandelier: which
says We’ve done it boys we’ve really done it: which sees no blood from the
chandelier: which knights itself as Accountable Fairness: which identifies
with the bird it is swiftly killing: which refers to its daughter as its God-
Given Pony: which eats its turkey & falls asleep on the couch with the TV
light on its meaty fingers: which wakes up shivering with its meaty fingers:
which the next day alurch from the shower pukes upon its bathroom rug
& washes fast its meaty fngers: which gets in its Lexus: which gets in its
Mazda: which gets in its Prius: which gets in its Landrover: which turns
on the seat heater & waits at the light: which sweats a dark death from its
venerable hole: which turns the brightness swiftly down, for every screen is
afre today: which says GOOD EVENING which tramples unfed faces on
linoleum floors: which tramples unfed faces at a midnight sale for the flat
screen for the rifle for the Large-Size Pool for the leather boots polished
with the trampled faces staring back: which stares in the mirror & speaks
to itself: which says I am no abuser which says I have several small demands
which says I have learned to live like this: which has drank its young within
its frames.
