Thomas Fink


RALPH’S MAMA

    couldn’t
      have
        anticipated
            a future
              common-
                place of
                  working
                    clan en-
                      durance.
                        But had
                           she hushed his ambient
                                  macho and steered him to intricate,
                                              intimate acquaintance with her household
                                                                                                        cultivation moves,
                                                                                                               Alice could
                                                                                                      have extended
                                                                                                 her donut
                                                                                           powdering
                                                                                        career. And
                                                                                     then, the
                                                                                   eczema-
                                                                                tinted
                                                                              tapestry
                                                                           declaring a
                                                                     cornucopia
                                                                  to relieve
                                                                the neigh-
                                                        borhood’s
                                                  thin slices





          would
         have
        had a
       chance
      to grow
    truer, one
  unit at
a time.
  Half
  century
   hence—
   TV con-
    fident it
     hasn’t run
      out of euphoric strategies.
          When I peeled the billboard’s face,
                 there was a white x. Are sewers incontinent
                                                                                      by design?
                                                                                       You could
                                                                                           let me
                                                                                       deliver an
                                                                                  undervalued
                                                                                   service
                                                                               without
                                                                              sneezing.
                                                                             Bottom
                                                                           of a ditch:
                                                                         “it’s not my
                                                                        fault.” He
                                                                      works the
                                                                     scales pro-
                                                                    digiously.
                                                                 Surprised
                                                             at how






                     tall you haven’t
                become. Impecunious
             bidders catch             the auction’s
           rhythm.                                   While de-
         spising                                           how, under
       the truisms,                              prime-time
      altruism has
     a built-in
   meter,                      designated
 untouch                 ables are game
to be                       touched. One class’s
  bleak                  argot is found spinning,
   mock                 jubilant, in       the arse of
    another.      We quiz the           left: injection
     or insurrection? Vert-                 ical for too
         long, these                                     chance parleys
                                                                       must go way
                                                                              past laryngitis
                                                                                     if we hope to
                                                                                           encourage
                                                                                             sleetballing
                                                                                                gentrification
                                                                                                        to be less
                                                                                                                inevitable.


Thomas Fink's most recent books are the e-chap Staccato Landmark from Beard of Bees Press & No Appointment Necessary from Moria.

 
 
 
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