.
.
When I say I like you I mean I can tolerate you
& when I say that I have omitted the word barely
& I only use the word barely because I am very
polite, & I said can instead of cannot, my politeness
a result of my upbringing, which was distant but
disciplined, comparable to but not at all like that
imposed upon horses and various other domesticated
animals (I omit the cockroach) & Oh, when I say
your most recent offering is of great interest you
should understand me to mean that I have not read it
because of late what has become very apparent to me
is that I don’t have long to live & I would like to use
what time remains to me wearing wool next the skin
until the warmer weather arrives, until the first
little lettuces appear, until the apple tree awakens
into bud, & wallowing, as much as I am able, in
the exquisite company of nymphs & where possible
(& some will hate me for this) nymphets, for whom
the niceties of avant garde poetics mean less than
a can of beans, which is one of the several reasons
they have, & will always have, my eternal blessings.
.
Martin Stannard