iii. - David Antin (from Novel Poem)

iii.

Our heads ached.
we were slightly sick with the smell of blood

to a woman
to women
to the enemy

i suppose we could say that they name us
we feel safe with them
we are on some kind of frontier

we are frightened 

trying to create men

have i hurt you that i dreamed

the dream was a telephone conversation

these words moved me

but i sat in a kind of cold fog

i am the evil vase

yet they were all used to it

they had been living inside it for years

it was not strange to them

only to me

a man about fifty

a bachelor

or perhaps a married man

a man and a woman married

or perhaps in a long relationship

an American man and an English woman

man and a woman

both sexually proud

two rakes

male and female

together

this time the woman

a wandering man

a woman artist

a man and a woman in a love affair

a woman who has fallen in love

against her will

a healthy woman in love with a man

a man using grown-up language 

to gain a woman

a woman meets a man

nice women

she is in love

she says sharply 'im sleepy'

she is dismayed

usually he limits himself

he writes in his diary 

he cuts it

says 'good-bye' 

formally

she says 'you've just been making love to someone else' 

he says 'you are permissive'

he says 'what do you mean'

she says 'is your heart beating'

he says his penis is limp

she says she understands the nature of his illness

a man or a woman 

a husband unfaithful to his wife 

two people of any kind

a mother

a son

a father

two daughters 

lovers 

pity a nice woman

[From:

Antin, D. (1968) Code of flag behavior. Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press. p54 - p56.]