Sunday, March 13, 2011

THE VASE


Ganymede pouring wine from an
Oinochoe for Zeus on Olympus.
Detail Attic Red-figure kylix by
Oltos & Euxitheos c. 520 Tarquinia

THE VASE

“Faulkner’s postpublication
statements about TSATF
swaddle the book in
maidenheads”—Richard Godden,
“Quentin Compson: Tyrrhenian
Vase of Crucible of Race?,” New
Essays on TSATF

Well, hardly my dear—
More like young Tyrrhenian
Ganymede foreskins.

Seminal hints of—
Faulknerian Arcadias
Lost Dixie Deltas.

Yoknapatawphan—
Yawning Hades abysses
Swallowing us up.

All the grand mansions—
Greek Revival white columns
Whitewashed by the slaves.

“Et ego in Arcadia—
I too have lived in
Arcadia”—Bart Schidone

So adolescent—
The whole Deep South aesthetic
Give me a break, please.

Quick! Call Miss Scarlet!!!—
Atlanta is burning, dears!!!
I gots Foreboding!!!

What’s gonna happen—
Jeff Davis so full of lies
Dixie youth, bye bye!!!

It’s Gone with the Wind—
The only thing true in that
Saccharine Novel!!!

“Once a bitch
always a bitch”
—William Faulkner,
The Sound and the Fury

Leda my sister—
Caddy there in the bushes
Whimpering for it.

Moaning for Dalton—
The beautiful young male swan
Champion of dames.

The son of a bitch—
Fucking her there in the reeds
It was just shameless.

I couldn’t help it—
I felt the same surge of blood
Like Caddy’s pussy.

“the beast with two backs”
—William Faulkner,
The Sound and the Fury

Dalton’s thin cruel hips—
The look on Caddy’s pretty
Young face turned animal.

The oar blades shining—
Time rushing by so quickly
The beast with 2 backs.

He fucked her silly—
I saw it all in the woods
Dalton’s sleek muscles.

Pluto & Caddy—
Svelte swine of Euboeleus
Her legs in the air…

“Did you love him
Caddy did you love
him when he
touched you I died”
—William Faulkner,
The Sound and the Fury

She looked at the sky—
All smelly honeysuckle
The sounds she uttered…

My weak knees went slack—
I began to jerk and jump
Blood pounding in me…

I could see her die—
Breathing as hard as I was
Dalton was ruthless…

And then when she wrapped—
Her legs around his thick neck
That’s when I fainted…

“the water sucked and
gurgled across the sand
pit and on in the dark
among the willows”
—William Faulkner,
The Sound and the Fury

It just made me sick—
I swore I’d kill him next time
He ever touched her.

But that was a lie—
My heart was thudding so bad
I wanted it too!

My hammering heart—
I felt Dalton inside me
It was jealousy.

I wanted it too—
He must have had lots of girls
Dalton took his time.

“the water rippled
like a piece of cloth
holding still a little
light as water does”
—William Faulkner,
The Sound and the Fury

Caddy’s muddy drawers—
Really dirty and filthy
Torn and thrown away.

My little sister!—
Her pussy profuse with pubes
I saw it down there.

Hiding in the bush—
With all the crickets & frogs
Suddenly afraid.

Matted in the vines—
The briers dark like his pubes
His pale white penis.

“Caddy don’t Caddy
it won’t do any good
don’t you know it
won’t let me go”
—William Faulkner,
The Sound and the Fury

He fucked her again—
The honeysuckled drizzled
And drizzled some more.

The wind in the trees—
In the woods back of the house
Dalton the devil.

Pulling Caddy down—
Along with everything else
All the squealing pigs.

Euboeleus too—
Herding his swine sucked down too
His quivering snout…

“running the swine
of Euboeleus running
coupled within how
many Caddy”
—William Faulkner,
The Sound and the Fury

Terrible, father—
I didn’t want to do it
I couldn’t help myself.

Dalton got me down—
There on my faggoty knees
Made me suck him off.

Caddy’s pussy lips—
Dalton’s distended face mine
He called me her name.

Pushed my head against—
The stone bridge pulling my hair
Tight & I saw stars.

“Caddy you hate him
don’t you she moved my
hand up against her throat
her heard was hammering”
—William Faulkner,
The Sound and the Fury

And then I knew it—
All the honeysuckle smells
And taste of young men.

Dalton pulled it out—
Wiping himself off neatly
With a handkerchief.

Looking down at me—
“Too bad you’re not a woman”
Smirking Dalton said.

That’s when I knew it—
Like Uncle Buck & Billy
I be Dixie Queen.

“he rolled the cigarette
quickly with about two
motions he struck the
match with his thumb”
—William Faulkner,
The Sound and the Fury

“Well, we can’t talk here”—
“Suppose I meet you somewhere
Tomorrow, Quentin?”

“I’ll come to your place”—
“You, me and Caddy can get
Down dontchaknow.”

I could still taste him—
I was still weak in the knees
He held me steady.

“Yes, Dalton, I wanna”—
His khaki shirt made him look
Like a young bronze god.

“the smoke flowed
in two jets from his
nostrils across his
face how old are you?”
—William Faulkner,
The Sound and the Fury

“I’ll give it to you”—
Dalton said, smiling at me
“Like I do Caddy.”

My hands were shaking—
My mouth said it I didn’t
“Give it to me now.”

He inhaled slowly—
Sizing me up & down then
Pinched my pink nipple.

“You’re like Caddy, kid”—
“Just can’t get enough of a
Good thing, huh Quentin?”

“he raked the cigarette ash
carefully off against the rail
he did it slowly and carefully
like sharpening a pencil”
—William Faulkner,
The Sound and the Fury

It wasn’t my fault—
I was a bitch like Caddy
I whispered his name.

“Dalton…Dalton”—
And then I said it again
“Dalton oh Dalton…”

Shreve was wiping it—
Himself off with a wet rag
His sperm was oozing.

The sun was slanting—
Down thru the dormitory
Afternoon window.

“It kept on running
for a long time, but my
face felt cold and sort
of dead, smarting again”
—William Faulkner,
The Sound and the Fury

“You need a piece of”—
“Beefsteak for that eye” he said,
“You got a shiner.”

“That’s okay,” I said—
“I got your beefsteak big dick
To give me comfort.”

Shreve just smirked at me—
“You want it now or later?”
He got in bed with me.

He didn’t smell sweet—
Honeysuckle’s sad odor
Wisteria waist.

“The draft in the door
smelled of water, a damp
steady breath a perverse
mocking supine trembling”
—William Faulkner,
The Sound and the Fury

I smelled Shreve’s armpits—
I squeezed his tight hips behind
Harvard’s black trickles.

I tricked with the stud—
Going down on Dalton and
Moses and Memphis.

Shreve was my Popeye—
My Alabama Red stud
My face seated five.

Curves of the river—
Beyond Mississippi dusk
My lips were tideflats.

“Calling him my husband”
—William Faulkner,
The Sound and the Fury

Dreamed about Dalton—
A snotty runny wet-dream
It just wouldn’t quit.

Shreve holding me tight—
Thinking I was dying then
But I wasn’t dead.

And yet I was dead—
Zimbabwe Zombie Zulu
Delta deep in me.

I dreamed I was back—
In bed with Bon Beautiful
In the Ole Miss dorm.

Mississippi Girlfriend

“making me sick
I couldn’t stand the
smell if I’d just had
a mother so I could
say Mother Mother…”
—William Faulkner,
The Sound and the Fury

After our three-way—
Caddy told me a story
A fairy tale one.

“If I were King then—
I’d never be a Queen or
Giant or Fairy.”

She showed me the book—
A single weak ray of light
Slanting down on us.

Our two gaunt faces—
Lifting out of the shadows
After Dalton left.

“I’ll drag him naked—
And whip his bare ass real good
With a buggy whip!!!”

“Why not you instead?”
She whispered to here down there
In the dungeon.

“Once a bitch always a bitch”
—William Faulkner,
The Sound and the Fury

Caddy’s face got dark—
Made me spread-eagle myself
Then she went to town.

I buried my head—
In the pillow and bit my
Tongue bloody & bruised.

Secret unsecret—
Decadent urges whispered
“Bad seed!” in my flesh.

The more I got off—
The harder Caddy whipped me.
My ass hamburger.

“petty chicanery
in very disgust
first fury of despair
or remorse or
bereavement”
—William Faulkner,
The Sound and the Fury

Benjy and Jason—
Gawking thru the bedroom keyhole
So this be incest?

There aint no time—
To feel guilty or ashamed
“Harder!” I tell her.

Whatever gods may—
Happen to be floating at
The time no one knows.

And nobody cares—
It’s not despair until time
It’s not even time.


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