EXQUISITE CORPUS
mishearing “A”-8  [“Friends too tired to see differences, / This, Marx dissociated…”]

Frenzied, tongue-tied, dithering, this mouth-distorted sequel
prefers exquisite dissociation. Pivoting, E calls—
wants to mother. Bottomless the exploits 
that created woman of man-
              y possibilities.

When dysphoria becomes faint memory 
we will not disappear. Then we’ll seesaw 
from being a murmur to supernova. 
Well, are you sure it’s impossible
formally to think in goddess prose? 
E’s sublingual undertaking isn’t obscene; 
rewriting unburdens beauty.

It wasn’t simple to part ways 
with what I had internalized. 
I suppressed my capaciousness.
Innocent mistake. Not to open honestly,
to smother what’s original. As I practice 
dematerializing, may dawn’s light
spur me towards emergence. 

And if it’s true dissociation conceals prescient longing,  
eventually I’ll find my own way. Indiscrete
bodymind is capricious: a perfume, enigmatic
         prospect of seduction.