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John Mancini: An Undesirable Stimulant to Spread Among the Young

May 31, 2020 by PBQ Leave a Comment

I don’t know if what I’m about to say
is true, but it seems to be true.
Men used to pad their stockings
to make their calves appear
more muscular. Now,
the head is simply removed
from the body in a process
called neuroseparation.
The more we look the more
we want to tempt fate.
When you love life like we do
this service is a natural choice.

Every day, Claude Monet
discovers many beautiful things.
Pencils. Decals. Coffee
mugs. T-shirts.
The animal indifference
of men.
Edgar Allan Poe, engaged to wed
his thirteen-year-old cousin,
said there is such a thing
______as being too profound.
Egon Schiele slept with his sister.
At forty, Gauguin moved to Tahiti
and married a fourteen-year-old—
which was the age of Priscilla
when she met the King in Germany.
At least he could sing, Natalie said.
He couldn’t do much else.

The morals of the children
are tenfold worse than formerly,
noted Lord Ashley in 1843.
______It just automatically
wiggles like that,
Elvis said of his leg.

Filed Under: Issue 100, Poetry, Poetry 100 Tagged With: John Mancini

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