got a hangup about the Voice of the Father

     when Boy Mechanics Attack.
   what did James Joyce ever do
               to you? what did Lyn Hejinian?
           I steep my morning tea in
        imprecations to Gertrude Stein
           with the rising sun, settle every slogan
               without confrontation before
   dawn. and now the broken
               syntax gets shoveled heartlessly
        into Lock & Dam #1 downwind
                        of the Minnesota Department
               of Public Works.

                                  what did
        river commerce ever do for
                        poetry? what did feminists?
        go out and give one a back-rub.
                        or at least shake her hand.

              or maybe you should wave,
   nod head acknowledge
               that avant-garde dislocation
             is a big enough Wonderland
               for everyone to get disenfranchised
        inside of. tell me another. shake
                        the hand of the man whose
               thumb you’re under.

        10/16/06