Exquisite Corpse - Issue 4
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Maternal Impressions
by Daniel M. Nester
A new discovery: Blake was afraid
of hermaphrodites. Terrified!
Not as wacky as Yeats' monkey balls
or Bukowski's wife-kicks on the couch
but clearly something of note. I book
out of the library, Visions
of Albion above, flowers fastened
to loins, boys neutered from coal dust.
I think of clipped-off birthrites
and dig up maternal impression stories,
whole texts on webbed feet and harelips-
Bless these stories! Bless the fish boy,
the elephant infant, bless
the cat woman, bumpy-head king
triplets born at a fair.
Bless hermaphrodites,
nativity scenes with live animals,
and God bless Blake, without contraries
there can be no progression.

Bless the useless nodules
that no doubt flounced Among
School Children along.
Bless the whole idea of talking animals.
Bless Bukowski, his soft tennis shoes
and 14-point Palatino. Throw in middle-class
poets, their overbearing second wives.
Bless all of this fear and birth and sex,
mix it up in the favorite animal dreams of kids.
Let the beasts gobble them up every October.
Let them all think of tigers when they go up to bed.
Email: danielmnester@hotmail.com

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