opinions tend
to depend on
incriminating evidence:
in private,
she wants nothing
more than
high breasts;
he, to impose his own
checks on the congress.
Now which of those
agendas
was derived from
pure aesthetics?
Is it just any old
intrinsic impulse, then,
which survives us
as the soul?
*
Perhaps the best
of your earthly behaviors
tends to counter-
balance the worst?
The oracle at Delphi
does not demur.
But neither
will she tell you;
she needs you
to guess.
*
I try on “this instant”
and “forever”
like outfits,
while the word—
which is
with god,
and which is god—
only sits
in the dressing
room corner
with its eyes closed
and titters.
