compelling pain

And women are attracted to
muscles, height ...
   New York Review of Books
   March 21, 1999

i have spent my lifetime
   in glorious longing

slaying rabid monsters

wearing the shining helmet of
   mambrino

courting the sweet
   dulcinea.

yet i have secretly suspected
   all along that

these monsters were only
   windmills

my helm, a piss
   pot &

my love, a forgotten
   image of a prostitute
   
glaring out from no where

   behind protective glass.