×

Uncut stone whittling away at cracked souls,
     boning Sunday morning saints down
     bare back hallways, hot dish on plates,

misplaced disgrace situationally
     sexualizing fags, jagged pricks
     who have all-but-lost their edge but

not their rage, jaded and overpaid taste-
     makers making them regret it
     before servicing big-cocked, blank-

shot producers bank-rolling obscene things
     far worse than being seen alone
     in an unincorporated

company town, where what-it-takes to “make
     it” means even being ignored
     needs an audience, a script, and

a crew, making-do making them do them
     in crowded corridors, grinding
     to moaning messes of nameless

                    ×

mates, pawns checking-out of Hollywood’s last
     great, hollow, palatial hotel
     at dawn those smug house detectives

giving good face prowl, recalling how hard
     fate’s unforgiving henchmen drive
     home, with cold hearts and heavier

hands (in fingerless gloves), what “sir, it’s time
     to go…” hidden behind smiling,
     unrelenting hellos make their

third-warning opening of shaded eyes
     no more charitable than fame’s
     fading fast, before battalions

of admen can bide notoriety’s
     tide flooding over a night of
     silent crimes, or lies, colouring

brighter the sobering look of one’s own
     grave, digging it with silver forks
     tongues attuned to the nuanced licks

                    ×

of another’s wounds afford those marys
     who console johns, paid hourly, trained
     in escaping the unveiling

before legends can trace their martyrdom’s
     origins to their artistry’s
     beginnings, creation’s timely

fixers making of love’s errors (and god’s)
     what no craftsmen can erase from
     the equation, when enough comes

near too-much and “the way out” kills itself
     off, when what softens light’s burn blurs,
     existentialists taking from

life’s journey its watery illusion
     of eternity, guiding d(r)ivers
     to their exits, going down with

men of discretion renowned for never
     telling how they got into it,
     or who gave them the business.