Lure

for Alli Warren



This one's just too good to pass up,

like a sweatshirt without the name of a college.

It's a childish fixation, incubating

with a foursquare tug, an empty gesture

erasing each line of a scratched-in proof.

Maybe it's something to do while waiting

for the walls of the room to pull away,

revealing the cheering crowd.



Here's an orange-legged showcase of salves.

Here's what we might call the "straight face down."

Here's long hair in a tunnel, turned

over and over itself, as if weeds could grow.

Here's another theory of the avant-garde

projected on the bedroom wall.