Blackbird Archive← v17n2, Fall 2018Poetry · Volume 17, Number 2
Polyphemus, Shy & Likely on the Spectrum, Loves
his pet ram, its nubbly wool & dissonant sea-snail
horns, his generous uncivil island—much
as artists gonna love portraying his beastly
splendor & that ember-hot stick sizzling in
-to one nude eye. Behind the paint: artisanal
ripped-off cheeses, last seedy pomegranate
throng of flies flashing up an optic nerve,
a solo retina’s cracked mud, the watershed
of vitreous tearing down his cheek. We’re shown
not a macula seared but how rocks hurl as Masta
Coloniza out-smartypants hisself, raps brag
-gadocio. Dooms the surviving blinders. Can’t seem
the caliban sans ram to see, in orbital
cave alone with this: they were monsters, monsters.
