Larry Sawyer

OLD AND ITALIAN AS A PAINTER

Safari go on forever in this haze of Afric balm
brought my lunch, you? We're going to be here indefinitely
what great ape saw its reflection in the grass?
Christ these reviewers are like cannibals
remove your iguana from my thigh she quipped
the crux of the problem could be merely philosophical
but I sneeze and out come roses and invitations
photographs are an endangered species, we are history
the quality of light has changed, your arguments are convex
though my memories always come up winning
this is real life like a wave of zebras on the Serengeti
soul how can you keep score anymore?
gazing ever deeper into your eyes I see fish there
all the seasons of earth swimming in their depths.

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GEEZ

Egyptologists enact effluent entrances
grease easing the deceased eventually
mummies entombed even when leaping
knead evil December deals festering clever
cities expanding exhausted possibilities
each evening Eros escapes elegantly
ephedrine escapades erode extracted elegies
escrow grantees evidently evict elephants
excellent exceptions being inevitable
elliptical epigrams erode ecstatic earnings
else economize eager edgy egged effects
ether escaping electromagnetic elements
entering embarrassing emerald embedded
emporiums emitting empty encyclopedias
engaging sneezing engineers en route
elsewhere entrusting entire epochs
en masse equally ere equivalent equations
erupt erotically exploiting exotic exile
excavating eventually, expect extinction.

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BEATRICE DESCENDING A
STAIRCASE

she is iffy, magical,
airy, alights
on branches in tonic
autumn, pays
retail, almost
has the hang
of multitudes of
its--ah, have
you seen her
shaving,
resplendent says my
mouth when
I'm not looking
which isn't often
I'll dream of
those eyes until
my coffin
two geckoes on
the wall inside
my mind everyone
loves a lover
she stares upon
stairs
disapproving,

moving.

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SHE TRAIPSES FOREIGN SUN

nothing could be more saucy
than to become your sleuth
we've spent
eloquent atmospheres
of green Sundays
scooting across the moon

these days poetry is notarized
they will say of us (as if we
weren't there), "they lived an
out loud lifestyle, cool, too
on the surface of a planet called
rendezvous, newly discovered."

her body is a celebration, lizards
sun yourselves,
vagrants of the rocks, hear me
malinger awhile on the docks of
consciousness, my curiosity for you
will never be sated, Maori
tribes discomfit prey, they dance, a midnight
pre-natal soiree, we still must be

crazy, here on the other side of earth's
hullabaloo
we the auteurs of ascetics
are never weary but could be done
nebulous crab spin your wares
advertisements for the orotund, or
television's
breakfast elite, ululate your oblate
form, charming ingenue
a dossier summarily reviewed.

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