Dennis Speight

Dennis Speight (1983)
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“Seeing things like
they haven’t been
seen before”
—Robert Mapplethorpe

“a sort of
seminal bouquet”
—Richard Howard
“The Mapplethorpe Effect”
Paper Trail
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the sheaf of six—
calla lilies held
by dennis speight

a dinge bouquet—
portraying light and
darkness formally

mapplethorpe’s—
black nude males so
isolated, solitary

calla lily drama—
gestural dialog between
black & white forms
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speight spurts—
lyric efflorescence
smoke, lilies, jade

calla version of—
“man in polyester suit”
unabashed maleness

pairing calla lilies—
with sleek blackness
dinge queen lite

stereotypes are—
reversible, high
fashion gay porno
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displaying blackness—
flaunting it instead of
hiding it, my dears

parody hovers over—
dennis speight’s body
never seen before

flowing smoothly—
thru calla lily bouquet
rather than polyester

new anatomies—
inadmissible analogies
misunderstood relations
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calling forth the—
“secret’st man of blood”
suavely figured

the young black body—
independent of the male
organ of erect or limp

this subtle suggestion—
there’s a man in polyester
there in the elevator

simply going to work—
ponderous penis pushing
downward for all to see
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a repertoire of gasps—
secretarial pulsations
reservoirs of ascension

distended continuous—
contestation of veiny heft
solemnity of slave effigy

headlong prized patina—
white calla lilies straining
under the dark weight

engorged with blood—
momentary male victory
transpicuous with energy
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shocked faces ogling—
forbidden appetites, flesh
pulling, ponderating down

sense of endowment—
bearing downward what
aspires to rise erect

to mount expression—
potency of male rhythms
as the floors slide by

newly revealed eros—
arresting pelvic landscape
rising reaching up floors
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dense, onerous jungle—
long muscles, delicate veins
burdensome, unredeemed

impringing everything—
used to anglo-saxon
phallic transcendence

revealed for them now—
cheap Korean polyester
dinge sacred/profane

managers go down-low—
grimly obsessed with fatal
blowjobs on their knees
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the elevator gets stuck—
darkness contests with
ecstatic groping mouths

the muzak continues—
a scarlatti sonata enters
the darkness polyester