Katy Lederer

DEGENERATION


I do look for another version of
       Degeneration
I do think of the apple on
       The grave
And of that deeper love

The dove must not up nor
       Down
The dove bleeds his eyes
       On my pelvis, his wings are

Sick divers
       On this mantle is the splendid
Light of desire
       On the broad back of the leopard is
The ache of it, in honor

I do not play the instrument
       In longing but in quest
Not to be undertaken
       Not to be lost
In a forest of bliss

Where a man comes and severs
       My arm from my body
Bloodlessly


+++


THE GENERAL DRIFT


I am taken by the minister
He lays his soul to rest

He is clean as a dove
and is lovely

Like the general drift, he is caught, as if in a
net

welted with his longing for
his archeangelic mother

Like a people or father
he loses her
among the waves

in his oceanic, misspent youth
he saw her as a slave, but then retained her as his
concubine


TYPO 6