Milieu (poem)

Milieu

You like and you don’t like

Thin chances but first to subtract aplomb

A fellow’s duty done

Subtract an unobstructed view and brace

Like Dr. Bellows dressed

In oilskins, your slumbering other self

Can’t help but help

Be national interviewee miked and lensed

Smooth criminal’s aileron roll on hurricane winds

A sly, ingenious, patron-gifted, faux autistic

Foe lays a cunning trap, strikes a deceitful pose

Craft, as the fang of a cat, fatuously arrayed

To tempt

Or not

Or so you think

Or so time says you nay

Five points to the order blank, pole star

No, you’re not meant to like it

Though Orion’s dog might have scented it

All that money changing hands

Top cats get cash, you, football, get

Your kicks, riches of embarrassment, but

Coy you, the way you wear your hat

The way you eat your crow

The bird’s eye’s heartless assessing

Ceiling-mirrored show

Why, you, it was you, your face said that

Milieu

The Blurbs

Mystical

(2018, Stephanie Foster)