Smell the lilies and the columbine,
intoxicating rose, seductive lily-
of-the-valley, come smell! Can’t they die?

                                1
To each his own hell. Mine was an uninhabited
landscape as far from nature as you can get
without actually leaving the planet, a man-made

The Cubans are vaccinating anything
live they can find and burning the rest.
My childhood pours gasoline over the toppled cows and pigs,

The central divide of the body is invisible,
only hinted in the dip of the back
along the spine, or the primal hair

I rented an atelier attached to the flat
of a fading French film star, Marie-Claire—
who sighed, shaking out her trademark titian hair,

And there you are, painted into the picture :
Bricklayers and courtiers are making their beds
In apartments on the margins behind you.

Because the painter knew that history,
when it happened, happened in Venice,
it's on the steps of the Riva

Knowledge is huge and generous. Here she sits,

bracing her legs like pillars so they'll hold

the book she opens, peeking at Peace's old

If you wanted flesh you had to wait
till second grade, for the box
of 64. Until then you outlined us

in the latter days
you will come to a place
called memphis.