AND SO (THE DEATH OF RIMBAUD)

AND SO (THE DEATH OF RIMBAUD)

and so,
a candle
burns quicker

when fed
oxygen and absinthe

the latter best
not from a drip
or medicine dropper

if if is
essential
to preserve the mythology
of most favored
of fan favourite
precocious outlaw

Oh yes,
let us take a poll
on this side
those who
might suspect
the drunken boat sank
on this
those who would
steadfastly argue
it is there if you
would care
to search
for it
safe at its Seine mooring

but you yourself
were a veritable personification
of resistance to tethering

and now
     no longer with us
bond boundaries and bindings
do appear everywhere

the colours of the vowels
have lost their
surreal charm along
with
   former deep saturation

we
   should take a plebiscite
to see if
in this impoverishment
poetry
    might survive

and you so
word-
    agile reduced to
a meme expanded
to an
  entire semiotics

stuck in
     some library
every
library

where they
got you to behave
taught you to dance

their dance
        nuzzle and fawn