A Brief History of Anachronism

I dunno, the gent is gonna be a mi casa for dinner, we can all goof around here or in pequa, if  it’s good with you. I have the car. Wooooooooooooot! Hahaha, you are a man of sophistication and taste, my friend. Tomato, tomahto Okay, just have to check in with the boy. Who else is in? Sweet. Alright. Maybe not hot tubbing, but def stopping by. Legit. Sounds good, send regards in the meantime. Fabulous I’ll be at qc around 4:15, 4:30 Leaving now Sorry for the delay Leaving now Deer Park To get Joe The engine is stalling out. I’m ready to cry. The fan belt appears to be missing Car broke down. No go. Lo siento I. KNOW. And Joe here. Fucking embarrassing I was just attacked by a Chihuahua in the box office of the theatre I’m stage managing at… and I’m not really even phased. You’re way too nice. I got attacked by a chihuahau in the box office this morning. I will let you know when I get out of the ordination I’m just leaving the seminary now. There’s no way I’m gonna get to Queens before 8 Wish Nicole luck and call me later, I’m so sorry. Did not. Really. Lot of weird priestiness. Have a great concert. Groovy Recommend food in Smithtown, please With middle school friends. And thanks. And hi. That’s where one of the girls lives. The chick you don’t know who knows Stiyepan. Huzzah Lo siento Good man. When are you officially home for Sonic? Awesome sauce.  I’m working M4M all month Greek coffee- brings me back. Reminder- we are meeting at 6:30 M-11. Thanks! Lisa And by M-11, I mean Rathaus 217! The conference room! Apologies, one and all, please let me know that you got this. Sorry again, 6:30, RA 217.-Lisa Sent a text to everyone will also put a sign up. Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner, church. Thanks! Thanks! Thanks! Are you free to go for a walk at some point today? Just kinda want to hang out. Only if you’re free. I’m on the train now, and then I’m free until 6 Awww, no worries, then, bro. Hang out with your moms, I’ll be around tonight, too. Good. Because the crack cocaine is in M-11, the rest of the cast with be in 217. Thanks! Como esta, mon ami? Thanks! Stressed as all fuck, but otherwise dandy. What’s your week look like in terms of Lisa and Natalia gleefully frolicking through Queens or Brooklyn? That’s a beautiful, wonderful thing. Are they taking dad’s kidney on Tuesday? I gotta figure out rehearsal and family shit.will let you know All, I think. Okay. If i ever there. Fucking bus.

 

In Defense of Jocasta: A Testimony

 

The drape is cool and silken wrapping my neck

Dark purple regal against this dusky throat

This fabric the last embrace for a mortal wretch

A drop before I’m eternally afloat

 

(He loved this neck all his life

As a babe, how he clung, searching for protection

As a man, speckling abrasions of lust

This appendage, keeping head and heart attached

And unifying the woman that bore him first and again)

 

I could not slaughter the babe of our loins

I cast him out, refuse, to Cithaeron’s peak

The errand of a servant, for silver coins

Nailed to a mountain, desolate and bleak

 

(Did the oracles tell you Laius’ age?

Older than my father, than autumnal decay

Do the oracles know I was twelve and bleeding

And thought that he killed me with his little death that day?

Did the plebeians mention Laius fucked boys?

Saving for me only drunk, violent rage

Man-children knew those unmentionable joys

19 years of staring at ceilings)

 

The Boy-Man arrived in the haze of midday

Pectorals and youth and hubris and glow

Fresh from the lion’s enigma, from the slay

To claim unwittingly mother, widow.

 

(Did his mouth feel too familiar on my breast?

Did our skin, entwined, match too well in tone and texture?

Did my womb remember the flesh that it had expelled?

You ask, “Did I know?”

I must have known

In the mist of maternal memory’s recesses, I must have sensed.

I must have acknowledged, I must have felt

I must have…

“What woman would not give everything for her son?” I retort)

 

A boy, a girl, male, female birthed

All hearty, healthy, heirs to a new Thebes

Were not the sins of Laius then unearthed

Squalor, anguish that wisdom always weaves

What is known cannot now be forgotten

What has passed, now tainted with shame and scorn

Babes of my babe, grossly begotten

“Virtuous”, “Wholesome”, public ideals shorn

 

This wearied vessel now freezes en relevé

Prolonging the plunge, release from this world

A moment to think, scream, fixate, wield, pray

Drapery prepares to be furrowed, furled

 

(Sophocles, don’t let it read, “she screams and kills herself”

Dear Gods, Sophocles, give me something

Keep me off insanity’s verge

Tell them my story, tell them my love

Sophocles, don’t end me a licentious criminal

Alone and draped in regal defeat.

Anything, Sophocles, one semicolon more

Tell them my story, tell them my lore)