“Duel,” New Era, Aug. 1989, 23
Duel
Face to face at dawn,
It smiles;
LeeRing at me with typeset teeth
And inkEd breath.
Boundaries are drawn, weaPons chosen.
I—armed with
A splinted paleTte of swirled metaphors,
Which glimmered in the paDded desk light of
Late last eVening—
Fling them out with a spLatter …
They dRy up in mud-colored splotches, peeling
on the blaNk page.
Thrust and parRy, white fingers jabBing,
(Thought you could sLip in a seMi-colon;
DiDn’t you?)
Cut and snip, clitTer-claTter,
Firing off explosive rounds of ammuNition.
Exhausted, I fall back into the
Frumpled mouse nestle of twined sheets,
With only the scattered limbs of words
To mark the confrontation.
Art by Ingrid Niesen