Blackbirdan online journal of literature and the artsFall 2018  Vol. 17 No. 2
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an online journal of literature and the arts
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back JEANNE LARSEN

Polyphemus, Shy & Likely on the Spectrum, Loves

his pet ram, its nubbly wool & dissonant sea-snail
horns, his generous uncivil island—much
as artists gonna love portraying his beastly
splendor & that ember-hot stick sizzling in
-to one nude eye. Behind the paint: artisanal
ripped-off cheeses, last seedy pomegranate
throng of flies flashing up an optic nerve,  
a solo retina’s cracked mud, the watershed
of vitreous tearing down his cheek. We’re shown
not a macula seared but how rocks hurl as Masta
Coloniza out-smartypants hisself, raps brag
-gadocio. Dooms the surviving blinders. Can’t seem
the caliban sans ram to see, in orbital
cave alone with this: they were monsters, monsters.  


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