Like Hell (poem)

Like Hell

On your honor

Or upon your oath

Do swear to, or in association with (at any rate)

Today you see there’s advantage in planning ahead

Just where it tells most, go slot in a word

That’s no one’s bond, assuredly not yours

Not only because they used to

Used to…?

Avow—too strong

Insist, committed

Insinuate   too like a charge

(and orphaned actors never charge their handlers)

Imply   may be

Suggest   not really

Hint at, get at, drop a blank and bid you fill it

Used to

Well it’s awkward that your faith should fuel the franchise

Like a cow pie flaming neath a pioneer’s prairie grate

But you should bear in mind

Killers believe in the retribution of a god

Or, unless they don’t—everyone lies

And what ekdikesis will shrivel your fingers

If you touch the book of camp fire tales

On this occasion of solemnly, so help me

In the 70s many/most identified with the horror of horrors

Yet life’s teeming edge demands perpetuation

Evolves into a virion’s wholly realized deform

The dead tell tales of their own

Can sing in affecting baritone

And play the politics of how dare you

Is it my gory locks, that trouble you?

Is it the disco beat I shake them to?

Is this an interview or a beauty contest?

Do I care if I look like Hell?

I wasn’t fashionable then…I’m not like you a weathervane

It’s nothing to me if you swear on a stack of paper and binding

Like Hell

Uncollected Poems

(2018, Stephanie Foster)