Double Life, and: Against Metaphor
2023; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 131; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/sew.2023.0008
ISSN1934-421X
Autores Tópico(s)Education, Technology, and Ethics
ResumoDouble Life, and: Against Metaphor Randall Mann (bio) Double Life Let’s goto Ocean Beachto underminethe line: vultures flickarithmetic;pups dart,all heart. It’s grief,capsized,an itchof otherwise. The windelides—reliefa thief— the double lifeof consonants:passing; running.Theatrical [End Page 147] as the clapof a laptop,no one carefuldoes that. Careful. Our makeupsand,which arrangesand repeats itselfto protectitself,like CRISPR. A statwhisper:Whydo snaps numbrather thanenhance?Light oversexedyet sexless,more edgethan gape, or gag.Can, oh, [End Page 148] anyonebe impolite before night?Let’s do it.Let’s fallinto fear like the veneergrinand weakchin of abeloveddictator.Roll in rash,studin flesh.You can tryto relax.But it’s laterthan syntax. [End Page 149] Against Metaphor Gold is your friend But gold starves you —Alfred Starr Hamilton It’s absurd,how famished.The fast fashionof ghastlylit famea golden age of—Never mind.The truth isI’ve had minorabstraction surgery,can you tell.Limits ago,the go-go boyin my bubble overfilledmy receptacle,so we traipsed outto rue de Fleurus,OperationStealth Poubelle. Hell,say the word goonce, and he will—nothing gold can. Say [End Page 150] go twiceand add a boy,he’ll stay if coins flyinto a pool of drool.Speaking of: It’s Thursday, soit’s bingo. The gray emcee,when he pulls I-18,cracks the samejoke: “My favoritewords to hearin the dark? I 18. I 18.”It’s dark all right.The numbersglib as superlative.After our tussles, turns outthe dancer likedto chat. Sweet,but also, yikes. Dad’s hustle, Mom’s ill-considered likes?In today’s world, I said,like an undergrad.Oh bootlicker, he flickered,optimistically . . . I’ve been rising,my own Peter Principle.Belt and suspenders,my risk, felt. [End Page 151] And the urban dreamof a bathtub, dishwasher,and washer/dryer set:they say you can’t have all three. I canhear the phrase“love what you do”—the new coup,meaning, of course, the old—in the invisible store,hollow idol. I want them all.Today is Thursday.I huff essential oils.Will my downgrade,a trader, crack his shotlike a sexy golfer, slackson the Nasdaq floor?No more. I’m swearing offeroticsas slant facts.The diminished self.What’s pureis the gulfof a slurredafternoon, near the endof the week, but not quite.The blueon the back of my shoe [End Page 152] obscuresthe fontof a luxury word. And the love has not. Randall Mann Randall Mann’s Deal: New and Selected Poems is forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press in May 2023. He lives in San Francisco. Copyright © 2023 The University of the South
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