You Lose If I Keep the Original(s)

keep them coming, shysters
order off the menu, dweeb
pizza means italian, stupid

int hec hair
alli s lost
ma ns ma nhood
an dal lhis gl ory.

t heend

don't you see where all this is headed?
i'm talking about government-sponsored catatonia
in which the wide-eyed become
proseletyzers (or however it's spelt)

sure, as a medium,
ms. abbott
has grown,
but if she sticks
to the very bottom
of the food chain
perhaps she'll lose
more than the card-reading
pounds she's acquired

i don't pretend to "know"
people
i just shake them down when
i can
and pound the flesh
when it gets cloudy out

i saw a bruise once
that was shaped just like
italy
and that made me think
of padua
and those glorious
mortar-free fences.

i think it's architecture
that has ultimately boxed us in
with virtually nowhere to escape
we go to the jungle
and we look for the context
of the city
look for patterns and a way
through the maze

and the pilgrims
have been no help
not at all.