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.