Short and Sweet-Corto y Dulse. Fouth Edition.
A collection of selected poems
© 2005 by Danielle Arsenault

Poems:
roast beef honesty
peace earth plead
they cooked it hot
closet gremlin
enchanted peaks
palomino
downtown degenerative
the barrier smog corporation
vast black bull
red drunk deliberate
quacks dividing consciousness
problematic armchair
starlight angel
one more round
he’s stained like my underwear
impulse
spiders scattered
fad diet
biography of learning
blue inconspicuous
petticoat mistress
how the dragon got his rainbow tail
art deco
where are the horses now?


roast beef honesty
A golden surface
A street once busy teeming with busy footsteps
Not so busy now
If I squint from where I sit
I can see a rump roast in the distance
It lies on a jolly man’s plate
who sits at a table
which lies on the golden surface
on the once busy street

He believes in honesty
I know because that grin he portrays
Only shows four teeth
And in those teeth hang two slivers of his stringy
rump roast
(which he has now completely devoured)

Everyone knows that when an honest man smiles
two slivers of rump roast
should be seen hanging in between his teeth
Now since those slivers are there -
He must not only believe in honesty
he must himself be honest


peace earth plead
An individual overload
surrounding billows of masked illusion
while our green mother earth suffers
whole-heartedly under our feet
a nation empire unavoidable
bringing forth an illustrious cloud of compromise

Consider our undoubting joy
for participation in a world
peace
police
defying sneers from pessimistic protesters
everything in moderation

Loving our gracious flora and fauna
to the ultimate extent of protection
perfection
plant a tree for the future
inhabitants living together in peace
clearing the gap and
sewing the ozone shut.


they cooked it hot
Puncture through the window glass
Arsenic induced vinyl chloride explosions in the middle of the living room
Fitting like a glove until the exterior ricocheted off the neighbour’s afternoon tea cup.
Guts suck straight against the space heater

The Green Diet dropped dead as Motor Mouth steam-rolled his muzzle
The truth becomes whatever you lead yourself to believe.
Motor Mouth is an official supplier
Never could they mention the house they cooked

Flash in the pan, cease perfection
delicious scares laughed with desire
from both tainted mouths wet with anticipation

sudden stop burst
derailed where I was found
and all-neighbours joined the sheep flock
to observe in motion picture oblivion.