Funkin' for Fun

by Parliament


Transcendent Reality

I wasn't invited to the gay parade
and so I resolved to watch
Mae West titillate the men
in a cheesy seventies film. The next day
I lost my heart and stomach
on Drury Lane near a gold painted
mime with a large, gold clock
wrapped in a supplicant's hold around his neck.
My stomach wandered off whispering of
dreams and hubris with two bottles
of wine, one red and one white
without a great deal of my own
knowledge or awareness
unlike the contents of books
or the didactic nature of print.
I remember sitting on a dusty velvet seat
deep, next to Catherine Killigrew
watching "Othello" with musical accompaniment
ever five minutes. In those days
there was a pause after certain lines
then drums or strings, heartbeats
of sound to keep the production legal.
I hired a sleuth to find my missing heart
though I expected it home for supper
and she took my commission and handed me
A broken chain of being. I wrapped it
in a handkerchief with a print
of strawberries.