Tim Yu
Two Poems
L.A. Pantoum
Repent Baby Lou
Warn all the blondes
Of ear-held words
Skirts not suitsWarn all the blondes
The meter is on
Skirts not suits
Next stop derisionThe meter is on
Because of suicide
Next stop derision
Falling-down trunkBecause of suicide
I lean against this
Falling-down trunk
She said driveI lean against this
Catch-eye heart
She said drive
Swing that hammer downCatch-eye heart
In a cloudless sky
Swing that hammer down
On my slender handIn a cloudless sky
Her reason closes
On my slender hand
Cut the green frondsHer reason closes
Every pidgin ear
Cut the green fronds
From the starving treeEvery pidgin ear
Draws brittle words
From the starving tree
A daughter’s colorDraws brittle words
To their smooth-worn close
A daughter’s color
Willing variationsTo their smooth-worn close
My arm describes
Willing variations
On your breathless skinMy arm describes
Corrupted names
On your breathless skin
Salt the devil downCorrupted names
Bareheaded women
Salt the devil down
To my keeping handBareheaded women
Mount the narrowing stair
To my keeping hand
Be known my tongueMount the narrowing stair
Repent Baby Lou
Be known my tongue
Of ear-held wordsGamer
Cowboy arriviste
Assonant pleasure
Beneath fallow legsPeruse carnation
To mortal form bereft
Of opposing sighsCuneiform
A striver set
On Plato’s hedgeParasite arms
Embrace effluent
Tyrannical bendIn dumbfounded drams
Winsome
Melancholy craveTurbine traitor
Visitant entrained
Palpation magnifiedForsake this derision
Rather bludgeon
From sheer beliefGuttural kipper
There is outset of
As dolor protestTime called teething
Boiler of the bank
Arise and acheOne-to-nothing seam