Jeni Olin
BLUE COLLAR HOLIDAY


Vanishing Point

Depressed like cabin air & passing out
peach-tinted hygiene manuals
          on westside highway I lead men on
like the Virgil of the garment district:

Now this lovely structure on your right
is baby's jeans & a struggling pyramid of girls & oh
well I understand his orphans with my gun like cinema verite

shot through with lower-functioning inmates --
          with the "inkings of Scandinavian malaise" & whatnot
I go see art & feel priceless but to be a good sport you have to lose
          & lose value like junk bonds he likes to "sit back & watch 'em grow..."

The Met stuffed with alabaster tits I left alone, sexy & mightily unDutch

Mastered, set fire to a batik picture
          of Mother Chelsea the Pitiless who wasn't sickle-
          cell white & incontinent & Dia-funded

I stood in his cloud shirt by myself

cursed to stalk the night through all eternity & original so on
through the small ballet company of stocking runs & upset

nuns down Sixth Avenue, John Wieners,
the Americas breaking apart so I can feel this sinuous & partial wind
          like lyme disease with a drip in the arm & the sky is falling.




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