Long Lamprey Poems

The Rhine Salmon Complaint, Translation of Etiemble’s Complainte d’un salmon du Rhin

						For Yvon Belaval
(A lilting musical poem of varying line length in quatrains with a refrain and much internal
 rhyming; end-rhyme scheme: alternate rhymes in...

Read More

Sarcomas hatch like caviar
in St. Jude chemo-fire inversions,
where leviathans lay magnetars
to suck the blood of
virgins.

Their celestial suckers nurse their mothers
through quantum-dot tunnels, converging
what little life force
might milk
metastatic roots while purging,

and scute steroids discarding the hair
that...

Read More

Every shogun nation wanna be 
in war visor control
Commandeer the missile steering wheel,
be the king of the road

Likewise, imperial power lust eyes
wanna be the top wing of the hive
Taste all the money honey they see...

Read More

Sugar Cain spin speeches
coming from wrinkled, prune faces
Citrus acid tongue leeches
latching on to golden palatial places

Waxy viper lips moving in lamprey motion,
voodoo witches brew is an anaconda potion
Goodwill gestures nod seen tone sourly,
Facial expressions is...

Read More

They all come, and turn,
The apostatic hundreds from the wilderness,
Hungry as the lamprey, open-mouthed,
Impatient as an itch,
And virtuous as the grave.
Those that wait remain unsatisfied,
Barren children of a barren race,
Yet hopeful ever.
Severed from their mother...

Read More