After Theodore Dreiser
Because Carrie’s mouth
clove cigarettes,
holed cords, converse all-stars
a horse tranquilizer dream for days
Blur pounds the scalp
swinging disc man
a Bolinas girl
a no clack hippie
Inside panting the sunken and the dead
Irving Plaza forever light show
waist length Janis Joplin hair
The billowing, the linger, the fullness
heave a torso onto a springy mattress
it was soft Carrie
no one could strangle a flannel better
Your piercing Tim Burton giggle
of course you know having a silver rod for a tongue
ring is a permanent cock and balls in your mouth, right?
the therapist smirked
The cab never came
the German posers who stole a purse
thank the twenty-four hour French roast,
thank Pac Sun and mood rings
I like just the right amount
of plague in a girl