Misogynist Love Song

“Because there is very little honor left in American life, there is a certain built-in tendency to destroy masculinity in American men.” – Norman Mailer

I. Context

1.
Out of the corpse-mud,
the feting soup of rank flesh,
flashes of dogwood.

2.
Ivan, a rebel,
arguing drunk with brothers,
explains away God.

3.
Wolfmen curse the moon,
baying lunacy towards their
dirty Diana.

4.
Mashed against the door,
her face throbs beneath my hand,
cheeks bruising in palm.

5.
Moss grown and jagged,
the boulder of Sisyphus
descends from apex.

II. Romance

1.
Mr. Rochester,
blind lust hands your heart warm blood,
but Jane flies distant

2.
Black nips friendly smoke;
(epic lines tied to dead chords)
Black breathes night's music.

3.
Drifter: shanked, bleeding.
Hemingway's manly courage
preserving the Good.

4.
Dancing too close, we
two-step off beat without pause
over dirt dance floors.

5.
Virtue rewarded:
Pamela, half-raped virgin,
weds her assailant.

6.
Nursing the cooing
bastard, we grate past soft grins
like we gave a fuck.

7.
James Stewart lassoed
the moon for a Christmas bitch,
drowning ambition.

III. Reflection

1.
Two arid flirters,
hearts deep inside tumble weeds,
tangle in sand-dust.

2.
High now, my lichen
fists thirst for your lush neckline,
writhing in gravel.

3.
Hulk Hogan's gold cross
torn from his neck, kids mourn their
hero's defacement.

4.
Bertha Mason falls
guilty from a burning roof:
demonic, lovely.

5.
Numb fraternity
stoked around maypole ribbons
and blooming dogwoods