Body King from Night Language by Molly Shannon, Molly Shannon

If you would let him in then you already have
The devil whose home is in faking and trying.
A feeling of peace in a puddle of crud
Where even the fear that you cannot be better is read

One thing so hard:
There is justice in the lonelinesses of the livid and mean
One thing’s too hard:
There is kindness in the uglinesses of the reviled and seen

If you would let him in then you already have
Disciple of eating and drinking forever.
Twenty paces or nothing- it’s never enough.
Belong to the Earth, and tell me all that you love.

Lay prostrate in the overmuch air flowing up and bent
Hoquiam on my knees
Go crazy and kill yourself for bread and folly
A crow family I’m on my knee
One day for me you’ll grow a stub, a silicone weight
Bay for me a tiny ear
That grey goat in the overgrowth on a planet flatly
Bay for me a tiny ear.
You said that if we made it this far we would finally fear
Tomorrow everything, or at least day-old friends
Or at the least the young men, and the old drinkers
Or, at least enough to build a life
With somebody other than
Somebody other than somebody other.

A leviathan of crooked beams
Are we safe at all?
A barrage of filth and dill weed
Are we safe at all?
A cruel cough
A nightly towering
Behemoth of “forgive them all”.
Forgive them all.
You love an awful lot.
One is enough.

• Experimental
• Portland
• Seattle
• lo-fi
• spaghetti spaghetti spaghetti
• wasted
• Portland