Resections(I);
Body Citrus Tatoo
Choice fruit. Became a simple task
of holding the limbs down,
pinning
wire around the loose ends of the umbilicus,
drawing
a tiny mouth at the seam.
Now it’s safe to go in.
This way
the orange is tattooed to the wall,
tattooed with blue ink to the wall
downstairs painted blue. The wall is
tattooed to the orange, which is
tattooed in time.
(The current is 32 AMPS.
The phonograph’s arm is
DOWN.)
The orange is tattooed in Nature;
nurture, nurses, noone, nothing
can stem her; it can be
a blue stem on a flower, surgeon
on a stick, or on a needle, or on an eye;
a span cancre spotted blue skirt
(which can be stricken) as any cellophane body
can
(by any bug or butterfly) which can be
happily & distressed
ashes, ashes
but a body may be
and a body may be
and a body may be
alive while the kidney and brains sour:
the boy,
who in green, & in bullets, & in science
believed as in his own defense mechanisms
saw the airplanes shot; he saw them
his own riot progress, & he painted it
down in layers of blue flame, screams
applied as under a blue cellophane
(taped to it and it, and to it and it)
(each one)
that he gazed at (which were like those, each, each one;
his, its, mine; be exact, possess)
which were at his own feet
(that he had applied
the polish to)
which would have kept the eyes
dim & firm & broken up
& assigned to the ground
but the boy
the boy who was &
who was &
who made & re-made, & who made & re-made
& who–& what’s more–who painted
an orange
which orange made him realize
the oranges he saw
were just as spotted (as
in Tendrilacrid smoke) (in layers about him)
the people were & were only oranges (but bloodred, soaked)
& splashed upon the planes
that he had pinched in
the blue flame
of a cigarette.
Then it fell
(fell)
into his face
(and into his face)
the orange
(orange)
which had splashed his mother’s face,
& Stung
(& Stung)
so much like his own destiny.