Patricia Lockwood

Patricia Lockwood

Patricia Lockwood from Poetry, December 2013:

The Hypno-Domme Speaks, and Speaks and Speaks

I was born as a woman, I talk you to death,

                                                   or else your ear off,

or else you to sleep. What do I have, all the time

in the world, and a voice that swings brass back

and forth, you can hear it, and a focal point where

my face should be. What do I have, I have absolute

power, and what I want is your money, your drool,

and your mind, and the sense of myself as a snake,

and a garter in the grass. Every bone in the snake

is the hipbone, every part of the snake is the hips.

The first sound I make is silence, then sssssshhh,

          the first word I say is listen. Sheep shearers

                      and accountants hypnotize the hardest,

and lookout sailors who watch the sea, and the boys

who cut and cut and cut and cut and cut the grass.

The writers who write page-turners, and the writers

who repeat themselves. The diamond-cutter kneels

down before me and asks me to hypnotize him, and

I glisten at him and glisten hard, and listen to me and

listen, I tell him. Count your age backward, I tell him.

Become aware of your breathing, and aware of mine

                         which will go on longer. Believe you

           are a baby till I tell you otherwise, then believe

you’re a man till I tell you you’re dirt. When a gunshot

rings out you’ll lie down like you’re dead. When you

          hear, “He is breathing,” you’ll stand up again.

The best dog of the language is Yes and protects you.

The best black-and-white dog of the language is Yes

and goes wherever you go, and you go where I say,

you go anywhere. Why do I do it is easy, I am working

my way through school. Give me the money

                           for Modernism, and give me the money

for what comes next. When you wake to the fact that you

have a body, you will wake to the fact that not for long.

When you wake you will come when you read the word

hard, or hard to understand me, or impenetrable poetry.

When you put down the book you will come when you

hear the words put down the book,

                                              you will come when you hear.