You think it’s easy parrying
That globular self-portrait
Well so it is after a manner of speaking
Lazing as it does exposed near the bracket-end
I’ve had dreams like that or not dreams
The harsh gravitation of hypnagogia
Where a hand is the size of a sow
Or I feel my face stretch from wall to wall
My toe in the distant dwindling distance
Approaching or receding
Can’t tell which
I think of that when I hear
Of special revelation
How this kid one time claimed
That a message from God
Had commanded him to run for class president
How do you know but that your visitation I thought
Be but a visitation from the devil
Did you think about what somebody else
Thought about what you were thinking
And what we perceive most dearly
Or remember most fondly most anxiously
Turns out to be a pile of clothes
In the street light filtered through the blinds
When we were five
Or didn’t turn out at all
For the moment had passed
Or more likely he was just lying
And the audience responded
Fully as enthusiastically
As he wished them to
And we count the body language
And reckon upon the faint pursing of the lips
And one day the new paint job looks great
The next it’s terrible