Palinode 7: Alice ordered me

Yes those languages
work work

It’s not that I
don’t understand
(sounds are not
more than thermometers--
tell me how hot it is in here)
it’s that I don’t work
that way
    

This is to research you
I read the paper

In seamless night smells collide
I try to lap you, speak sweetly

I know what you mean
In French or Zulu
    

When I’m not at work, I laugh like this:

      Republican unseated
      Despite maverick streak

      Research unseated
      Despite maverick strep throat

For meaning--I’m not the one they go to anymore
    

This seamless night
Nearly, a separate poem

An empty table, I said,
Not something like it
A bird without feathers
Loud
Naked

Rats in for
Shedding my dis-

& leaves, yellow
were falling

This is Alice’s style, I steal her words

here:

…company.
    

Ask me to pool my words from nothing
Go ahead ask me
    

I will tell you a narrative strain:

I still have a lover,

But I am not here.