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)