Consider the Taxidermist's Tender Hands Trying to Keep from Losing Skin, the Bobcat Grin of the Living

Wasn't going to post today - I link fished last night but was going to let the Branca birthday post stay top for today - but this morning's discovery of a new Sun Kil Moon song called War on Drugs, Suck My Cock changes those plans and of course causes a Mark Kozelek cascade, it's been a while, too long, at least four months.

• Find Fleabus! Star Fleabus.
• A blogfriend's ferals turn five.
• The ironies of our present. According to one guy cited in the article, humans will be dead by 2040 meaning my daughter won't get to be my age in 2047.
• These dark moods: my future doesn't spark them, considering my daughter's future sparks them.
• #Accelerate in reverse.
• The economy: bad and getting worse.
• The elite view of the new Syria/Iraq war.
• This week in water.
• Red Line, Purple Line.
• Pop Departures.
• Once everything was better even the future.
• Map porn.
• Politics and the novel.
• The beautiful mind of Iris Murdoch. I read almost all of her novels when I was in my twenties, I remember most of them, The Good Apprentice, Nuns and Soldiers, The Book and the Brotherhood, The Philosopher's Pupil..... and haven't read any since, I was saturated. Time to pick one to reread.
• Mary Ruefle, for those of you who do.
• If Ever Should Come.

I AM TRYING TO BREAK YOUR HEART

Kevin Young

I am hoping

to hang your head

on my wall

in shame—

the slightest taxidermy

thrills me. Fish

forever leaping

on the living-room wall—

paperweights made

from skulls

of small animals.

I want to wear

your smile on my sleeve

& break

your heart like a horse

or its leg. Weeks of being

bucked off, then

all at once, you're mine—

Put me down.

I want to call you thine

to tattoo mercy

along my knuckles. I assassin

down the avenue

I hope

to have you forgotten

by noon. To know you

by your knees

palsied by prayer.

Loneliness is a science—

consider the taxidermist's

tender hands

trying to keep from losing

skin, the bobcat grin

of the living.