[Lyric] Story (Leah Umansky)

[1]
This is duty-bound or duly bound.

Only too prone are the mean and narrow; the absurdities lie in the words.

         “damn .damn. damn. damn!!”
         An immediate outlet – no?

Re-order damn and it is still a four-letter word.

                                    I want to describe this the way a
                                    spinning-top wounds down.
                                    Rewounds; unwounds. Fawn over
                                    it like one of Proust’s Madeleines
                                                                                  &
                                                                        wait for it

                                             it is still as sweet.

                                    Ahh – the subtext is duly noted.
                                    No emotional rendering or
                                    meandering. On with it.
[2]

Let’s tell the story like Prendergast.
Fleshed-out and flushed. Blushed.

Raw Umber. Violet. All the faceless stares; the lipless.

Now turn, let’s Renoir the story so it’s hazed or haloed:

                                    In each girl, in each eye: a spectre
                                    of the golden past. She has my
                                    blonde; my blonde, my blonde. Let
                                    the clock: break.

And the catalog will read: 41609

And the subtext: cast-ironed and hinged; sailor knotted in cord and framed in ladles. Yes, ladles.

Let’s weird it all out like Barnes.

[ 3 ]

It was all appositives.

You never loved.
Say it for me

Say it