XXVIII

         aubergine emojis from the provost

         darts fly through the oak of the rectory

         penny-farthings down fetid cobblestone

         bubonic fleas in the circus

         the insouciant game of Luka Dončić

         easily scored and easily bored

         faberge eggs wash up as flotsam

         my petty memory barbs my amygdala

         my desires both mendicant and lubricant

         another analyst guilty of coercion

         another officer in plain clothes

XXIX

         victims of limerence protest the confectionery

         circadian cycles broken by cock or cathexis

         too much testosterone along the Riviera

         two pints of beer on a summer evening

         musty emanations from the pied-à-terre

         the discreet farts of the bourgeoisie

         dialecticians in a rare spirit of volley

         a vat of fat approaching its smoke point

         who would deny me my seldom, soft indulgence

         my barbiturates of slow and deliberate touch

         my confetti of gallows humor

XXXI

         Heidegger overheard in the gentrified neighborhood

         the durian lady with her mouth of marbles

         Chet Baker relearns his embouchure

         we fall in love in the spirit of flagellation

         a black jeep of mutineers toward the capital

         Roman alleycats with eyes missing

         my father’s pedestrian guitar solo

         his vulgar use of Miller Lite

         I write a quick list on the R train

         three things worse than death—

         dialysis, Red Delicious, eternity

XXXII

         vouchsafed mandatory vasectomies to save the economy

         bomb threats to Ronald Reagan National Airport

         quinoa burgers on the driest day of the year

         grass-fed charlatans drafting internet beef

         my horniest data leveraged in a Ponzi scheme

         gladioli in oil with security detail

         pressed to name one painter without syphilis

         Clark Coolidge syntax sells me Tampax

         a whiff of Wheaties, an accent of ambergris

         moonrise over the internment camp

         prisoners reticent in waiting, their gospel of silence

XXXIII

         the student encampment erects a guillotine

         row homes burn along the Mississippi

         hippies in Kingston with stewed amaranth

         Diogenes hits a moving target with ejaculate

         chickens plucked for protein ritual

         a weightlifter's acne and creatine shits

         autochthonous rights obliterated by language

         oral tradition lost in a tempest

         rancher’s menagerie of castrated ponies

         svengali peacocking the perimeter

         his flaccid gesture secures his tenure

Eric Tyler Benick wrote the fox hunts (Beautiful Days, 2023) and the essay Memory Field; A Travelogue of Forgetting (Long Day, 2024). With Nick Rossi, he runs Ursus Americanus Press, a publisher of shorter poetics. His recent work has appeared in Bennington Review, Brooklyn Review, Copper Nickel, Harvard Advocate, Puerto Del Sol, and elsewhere. His newest chapbook, Solip Schism is forthcoming from Blue Bag Press. He lives in Brooklyn.