POEM

Madness 
Often blows through my head of Mount Vesuvius 
Like a dandelion lobotomy of daddylonglegs stirring, 

Aerially lured, untwisting their feeble fists, smoothing-out 
Crumpled anthropomorphic origami entities, 
Standing without bones, propped up, caricatural, like 

Fata Morgana, 
Gorgoneion upon every door, 
Kitty-fur enduring thistles, thorns, briers, 

Raisin you wrinkle in a purple skirmish behind an easel, 
Unblessed pew where I unname myself, 
Spread throughout an uncandid Cantos, stricken 

Against my bouncing persona like a wheel of firecrackers, 
A shepherd’s nightlight, feeding the fragments their leaves 
In a whitewashed penitentiary field of cumulus sheep.