To Sidney's Defense

The erected wit with its complete set

of screws and mock I-beams and moist

whimsy fluid in its jests, sit on bookshelves

tickling their fondlers: No one fakes

the howl of metaphor's swamp land

or construction. A glum guy hawking

his straight face limps to and collapses

in your Lazyboy. A deadpan woman

binds your thighs together with typewriter

ribbon because you cracked a smile

when making an omelet. Costumed

narrators with their tongues in each

other's cheeks warn of rubber girders

and steel girdles of sadists and masochists.

Extreme sites and eccentric buildings

have their own histories to love.

Clever's cleavage and tease's testicles

seduce until you have an urge for

a cigarette while rolling and rolling in

an open mind, a sculpted planet as a mate.