Anselm Berrigan

Anselm Berrigan [Poetry Foundation]

from Anselm Berrigan’s Notes from Irrelevance:

Armed with an early

termination fee, a

delusion with regard

to neither denying

nor being of the past,

a lazy fly to center,

a transcription of

a stain on the soul

of the off-looker

. . . In

that we’re waiting on

the okapi to organize

and go on strike, or

counterstrike. In that I

am waiting for the stuffed

okapi, the evil kitty, the

frozen hop, the spineless

doggy, the tubby fox

with babe to organize

and resist. I don’t think

the destructive will aimed

on the inside is elusive

if one is sensitive, but

the tangle of sentences

is hard on the eyelids.

. . . I like

to pay for time as I go

or am just used to doing

so and currently willing

to remark upon it under

the rubric of being

personal, though it’s

just as personal to wipe

my dirty hands across

these pinkened eyes or

pluck that bug from

my wind, both banal

gestures devoid of

disgust.

. . . I’m a child

programmed to punish

the world.

. . . there’s at least a

germ of truth in there

infecting my psyche.

. . . it’s necessary

to finally renounce violence

everywhere in one’s life

but in one’s self-accusations

isn’t it.