Naphtha

Ah Jean Dubuffet / when you think of him / doing his military service in the Eiffel Tower / as a meteorologist / in 1922 / you know how wonderful the 20th Century / can be / and the gaited Iroquois on the girders / fierce and unflinching-footed / nude as they should be / slightly empty / like a Sonia Delaunay / there is a parable of speed / somewhere behind the Indians’ eyes / they invented the century with their horses / and their fragile backs / which are dark // we owe a debt to the Iroquois / and to Duke Ellington / for playing in the buildings when they are built / we don’t do much ourselves / but fuck and think / of the haunting Mdtro / and the one who didn’t show up there / while we were waiting to become part of our century / just as you can’t make a hat out of steel / and still wear it / who wears hats anyway / it is our tribe’s custom / to beguile // how are you feeling in ancient September / I am feeling like a truck on a wet highway / how can you / you were made in the image of god / I was not / I was made in the image of a sissy truck-driver / and Jean Dubuffet painting his cows / “with a likeness burst in the memory” / apart from love (don’t say it) / I am ashamed of my century / for being so entertaining / but I have to smile