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Excommunicado


by Bill Yarrow



1.  

they tied him to a louver
and piled up hickory sticks

the flames gushed through the slats
and then burned down the house

not every punishment proceeds
without a hitch

 2.  

in walks the ghost with wireless hands
the hacksaw complexion
the jackoff heart

Gabriel in a zebra suit

 3.  

like a dog's first whiff of cinnamon
integrity is confident
it can annihilate perfidy

 4.  

here's what can be glimpsed:

a rose degraded to a thorn
a man etherized on a couch
all the hymns of Hymen sung to the music of crucifixes

 5.  

the moon is our conscience
we shall not wane

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