heresy

[Lizzie]

yeah dad
i read John Donne
not because he believed
because he wrote good poems

yeah dad
i read “The Lamb”
it was nice
and met  ri  cal
just how you like it but now


              i'm reading wheel-
              borrow

              William who
              glazes

              your eyeballs
              white like

              butchered boiled
              chickens


                                               i love
                                               e
                                               e
                                                           cum
                                               m
                                               i
                                               n
                                               g
                                               s
                                                                withhisfuckyourrulesattitude
                          and his oh god oh jesus face


                                  and Sharon Olds is teaching me
                                  how to strike matches
                                  and suck cock
                                  like a boss


so dad this is me sucking
at poetry—just unimportant tripe
with no Veritas
and no gravitas
an infernal waste of eternal time

-------

in Portsmouth
I saw a church
with astrological symbols
over the entryway arch

and sleeping deep under Notre Dame
there's a baptismal well
older than Rome

Tolkien despised allegory you know
i'm so sorry
but i'm pretty sure he liked Odin
better than your Jehovah

so

i do not understand why you have not
risen

why you have not seized spikes
to murder me

i do not understand
what you are waiting for