Ape in My Heart
Ape in My Heart
Lust stinks in my nostrils
rank odors exhale in my breath,
I roll the stone
to seal the cave’s mouth,
that in darkness rolls away.
I record it on the pages
of my mind, the killed
beasts I continually
resurrect.
Dream pictures are lewd conquests
as if glory wrote its name
between the thighs of
naked women.
Those bones there
gleam in my barbaric twilight
where I threw my brother
to the lions.
I chew and swallow the pages
in a world sick with its virus
and hide where crowds
wander in the labyrinths of
their own predicaments.
Publication Details
Original Citation
Planting Red Geraniums: Discovered Poems of James Hearst. Final Thursday Press, 2017. 21.
Word Count
98
Original Publication
Date Published
2017
Book Appearance
Complete Poems
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Manuscript
Permissions to reproduce work from the James Hearst Papers have been granted by the Special Collections Department of the University of Iowa Libraries.
Notes and Commentary