Apr 19, 2016
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I was swimming, or I was
falling, or I couldn’t move.
I was asleep, or I was
half-conscious, or I was
seeing things.
Goldman Sachs Speech #3
I was swimming, or I was
falling, or I couldn’t move.
I was asleep, or I was
half-conscious, or I was
seeing things.
I was in a bed
I was on a gurney
I was in a cloud like cotton balls
blocking my nose and eyes,
muffling all sound, dissolving
so that drops of water ran down
my face.
I was wiping my face right off
with those drops, dropping the smeared
tissues down to earth
below.
I don’t know.
Would you have
the resolve to jump
from that plane?
Would you say no
to that parachute?
“Naked Ambition in a Pantsuit”
I’m not immune to shame,
or virtue, or ambition — that
curse word
that makes me a bright-eyed
bucket of
crazy, my mouth full of the
oyster juices you put there;
or some bloody-mouthed
baby eater raving
with hunger like a tidal
wave, mowing down
the hapless who flee before it,
cracking bones;
spit or swallow
is never an old question,
some things stick
in the craw, some things
are worse going up
than down. I don’t pretend
not to want more than
give me my sin again, not to
think better of my mouth
than some golden boy’s
convenient spittoon —
common folk use pop
bottles for that and it’s
just as efficient. Let us
therefore make a deal; I’ll
stash my shame in the back
pocket of these pants and
you’ll take aim
again, from behind the yellow line
this time, and all of these
prizes are ours.
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April 19, 2016
