In the Country
Sean Mahoney
for Larry Levis
My country greased civility.
My country embraces meme
and wraps superficial round
its skinnying shoulders.
My country cannot see straight
for it’s triggers and magazines.
And that is aspic. And tongue.
And a lark. My country lives
in detours and is no longer
ours, no longer what my love
and I invented.
At the table we weep for our country
that it may one day grow to love
itself, its characters and wilds.
Our country believes in collections
rather than birds and smoke.
Our country cannot see crumbling
streets for the buildings of neon
wrap my country’s bones in
dizzying light.
My love and I watch the foolish hand
stir the collective and change the topic.
My love and I hunch together
wondering how we lost it.
Sean lives with his wife, her parents, three dogs, and an Uglydoll in Santa Ana, CA. They have been there a year now. The palateras frequent their street and ring their bells. They ring their bells quite often. With the help of aspirin and water Sean recovers. Sean works in geophysics after studying literature and poetry in school. Go figure.