Howard Fisch

JUST HOLD THE TESTER IN YOUR URINE STREAM

Give me some little gift, your glove or the like,
That I may think on you, man, and mourn the less.
But a love-token, lady, were of little avail.
--Sir Gawain

How do you know he cares?
Ray Wittgenstein, epithet musician, puts the stress on know.
As if we haven't stress enough.
Faith. Who's to fly in
and buttress my Chartres?
"Of course I care," he says.
It is a matter of affect: of course
and off course, what then?
You sing contentment,
I cry commitment.
Mick Jagger said he got no
satisfaction.
So why am I indelicately holding the tester
in the smallest chamber in God's house
and turning blue?

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