Parallel
This poem appears in Granville: 20th Anniversary Edition, Expanded & Revised.
I start out
as usual,
somewhere in the middle;
waving,
holding up
long standards
that wind, like blood-red carpets
to your door.
the taxonomy of being
cannot hold me back
from the hypocrisy
of counter-diction;
black mass
in other words
cannot tell you
of the tangible verse
of the machine gun,
the poetry of the hand grenade.
through rows of words
I listen to the morning siren,
elongated behind the police car,
dragged by its coat-tails
saying
innocent innocent
there is no safety in numbers;
but when the green light
comes on
I feel snug,
for my uncanny ability
to produce heat.