lines quoted from Song of
Myself, XI by Walt Whitman
Myself, XI by Walt Whitman
Laughter. Bluestones lost in heathered walls.
Twenty-eight men without womanly life.
Twenty-eight men without womanly life.
All so lonesome. They did not see her, but
she saw them and loved them. Ghosts in bathhouse.
Ghosts in steam. They do not think whom they souse
with their spray. Goo-goo eye. Weird bone corset.
She loves boys. Stitchin’ her own thread. A knife
like cock — something to sew, mend — fat with balls.
Braids ‘n knots she brings. For boy bodies. Ghosts
sweeping mist. All their black and milky stripes.
She flirts bloody. Hothouse gore. Which one boasts
sweeping mist. All their black and milky stripes.
She flirts bloody. Hothouse gore. Which one boasts
he’s the biggest? longest? the one who wipes
sticky palms dry. She’ll take all the young men
again and again and — O yes — again.
