They call me Jack Jigger because
I'm entirely made of little pieces
Taken from other people (some are

I'm sitting on a bench at One Hundred and Fifteenth
and Riverside Drive, with my books beside me,
early for my lesson in Chinese

In Anderlecht, the Maison d'Erasme
sits in an elegant courtyard as if
withdrawn from the vulgar world—concedo

Now I am married there is much to despair
now that I seem to need to.
By the powers vested in me, I am

So weakened by life he could just pass
through the world this hospital bed,
he lies as still as someone already dead.

The fine meat of its back
was opened, the steel flourished
with such quickness and artistry

shit flows downhill he who loves power
gets to be king he who loves love
gets to be priest kings and priests

When I heard he had entered the harbor,
and circled the wharf for days,
I expected the worst: shallow water,

When he left to plow the sea and husband
other lands, she became all fire.
The flames clutched air, their smoke

They cut off hands and composed cantatas;
They gutted their neighbors like fish and released
The shape of spirits from bonds of ebony;