It's all talk isn't it, emblem
and suggestion, it's either tremulous stutter
or taunting display: flashy but fleshless, a con man

We think they go well together—the translucent
vanilla orchid, the slipper orchid, the ginger
fragrances of the fiddle leaf, the swollen,

The gargle of water through the pipes
The rattle of water in the ceramic tub,
and the day is washed off, but what's clean?

After Marcus Licinius Crassus
defeated the army of Spartacus,
he crucified 6,000 men.

First you run! Fly!
Turn yourself inside out.
Another time you escape.

How stupid Penelope's suitors must have been,
Each morning as they elbowed for a place
Near her, and cocked their wits, eyeing each other,

Good old Paul—when he might have been kind
to a kid he, made a pass instead.

Well literally zillions of passes

Beginning with a fundamental, which
Sounds tonic depths, then reasons up from there,
The will to truth parts company with prayer

As the retreating Bructeri began to burn their own 
possessions, to deny to the Romans every sustenance but 
ashes,

I said something nonsensical to them
and they mocked back, "but we're your one design,"
or "you're our one design"—which was it?