Town centre
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57615/logic-56d23b4c891a9
Logic
BY ALICE NOTLEY
It was a poem
men took because it said ovary
didn’t take my
political poems
they took the one that said ovary
Are you sure it was because it
said ovary?
Yes, for them that’s logical.
—————————
Destroy another
city
What
else
is war for? So
you’ll go down
each of you does. dies in
whirlwind
each of you who does, dies
paying
for the pain you experience
Just that
and nothing is established
Because I am a woman
Cutting as many cords
as tie you to me. this isn’t
anarchy
it isn’t anything you
could name
You’re still here
without ties?
because they were logical.
—————————
Dance little asshole dance
oh he gets elected, like a Calvinist
He says, I have these guts
Men, I have these guts.
—————————
Having dedicated whole
regions to the destruction
you inspire, the
logic will be to go on doing it
doing it. Having proceeded by
the logic
of your per-
sonal vaccuum
you will perceive your continued
lightlessness
as an excuse to go on. having
gone on
as you have. And so one continues.
—————————–
Lead the boy out of
the building on fire
his head twisted
upwards
all fucked
What else is there to
know if
one has gotten
twisted up
all fucked
he is a screaming fire
—————————–
In the explanations
of our lives’ experience
they’ve left out this wild moment
the long mirror on the right-hand wall of the
corridor suddenly shattered
I can’t see myself anymore.
—————————–
I repeat that I am not frightened
and why not
I don’t know
what my reactions
are supposed to be.
—————————–
“Please tell me something
with which I’m familiar.”
isn’t there another part of now
Alice Notley, “Logic” from Songs and Stories of the Ghouls. Copyright © 2011 by Alice Notley. Reprinted by permission of Wesleyan University Press.
Source: Songs and Stories of the Ghouls (Wesleyan University Press, 2011)
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