Poem: Claude Willan

Illo for Claude Willan's poem.

Palais de la Bourse

How did I never realise decorum
Is ideology? Yes yes I know

Indecor is ideology too
But it’s a start and yes I have read Norbert Elias.

Speaking of decorum, I would say I if it didn’t refer
To me, if it didn’t contain the word I basically.

O is it hard to love a depressive
Caught in their own safety net?

And I would hold ice in my
Oh wait I already said that sorry.

To lie face down is one of life’s great pleasures.
It is one of the few remaining postures from which no-one could expect you to answer the phone

Surely.
You’re welcome to gaze at me moonily

Disengagement is the inalienable
Luxury and best reason for itself.

Try loving a saint first; then you can tell
Me it’s pablum.

Is it unethical to enjoy a financier, especially the apricot-filled ones, like am I supporting the financial-
Industrial complex?

Can you imagine the riches you’d need
Just to say the word dolor?
 
 
 
Claude Willan lives in New Jersey.

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