Pensées of the Sucker MC
10.04.15
See the shining city on the hill? Most of their laws
have to do with crops
and sorcerers. City attractive
as a first responder. City good at everything
like the shemale. When the owl
had a dollar bill inside of it,
when the plague had yet to make
its way to a theodicy, I stood on the steps
of the courthouse, saying truly
that sentiment is fear. Sexual partner,
sometimes your address
is your only remains. Sexual partner,
gone to the outlying vineyards
and the cellar invisible, gone
into the whistle and the metal
of the whistle. Meanwhile, my fellows, they tie
my eyes to a rough hewn board. They payroll
my bones and rain their curses
down upon me, as if a rain of come.
Even those born before me
shall outlive me. Even those born after me
shall exceed my consequence.
On the hill, a city, and in the city, a house.
And someday you will all be sorry
when you recall how carefully
I closed each door behind me.
———-
Josh Bell’s next book of poems comes out, from Copper Canyon, in early 2016. He teaches creative writing at Harvard and is the author of No Planets Strike.
