"Lysistrata Motley" by Corinne Lee

Even the quitch loves, sashaying
belly-blade to blade-belly

when wind is low. Most days,
we fail to notice
that elusive, Rastafarian

canoodle. The poems
therefore darting away, sunken,
through the halls.

Our words becoming escapes,
not spoor. Why can’t
our selves intersect
with the exterior?

Because something is sclerotic,
strung high
in the Burundi
Salvador trees. Where dewdrops

are slaver. Listen up:
The Egyptians jettisoned

a mummy’s cerebrum, knowing
the heart should do
all thinking.


—Reprinted by arrangement with Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., from PYX by Corinne Lee. Copyright © 2005 by Corinne Lee Greiner.