Watching Amélie For the Umpteenth Time
 
I am watching Amélie
for the umpteenth time
it makes me think of
a small French village
where I would live if
I had to do it all over again
 
I would have a folder
named “personas” and
the folder would contain
only the French content
 
two of these many
anonymous personas
would speak only
French in a car and
only Dutch in a fight
 
the offices would
follow you automatically
and the skyscrapers
would definitely fit
the name of the village
 
I would drive
a small car and
yell “honk honk” for hours
until I was mute
 
I’m thinking of picking
out the best snotty tissues
and scrapbooking with them,
adhering some with
pop dots here and there
 
 
 

Libera me Domine de Romaine Acetaria
 
I hung a Cosimo Tura beside a Carlo Dolci
couldn’t prevent Mr. Buggins from preferring
Hedda Lettuce’s French rendition of “Bang Bang” (unknown duo)
to Goo Goo Gaga Agatha Heterodyne Girl (unknown Chinese group)
and Sailor Saturn Mint Tokyo Mew Mew (unidentified Pokot witch doctor)
to “O, such loud BS, Kylie!” (unknown genius)
 
I would not be washing lettuces now if
I had paid my respects to Diogenes
+ Brian Wilson Shock Treatment
+ Demdike Stare
+ Luigee Trademarq
+ Henri Chopin
+ Bongwater
+ Longmont Potion Castle
+ Raymond Dijkstra
…
 
instead, I am ensconced in Dixie,
twitching like a diamond in a goat’s ass
(unique version for reprint here: Piss Elegantly)
“General Tso’s chicken brings me
to a state of gustatory euphoria,
it leaves my mouth feeling so clean”
(Gloria, Winter Garden, FL Retail — 8 years)
thus, even at a very young age a woman
can be wise without it carrying
the same conviction enjoyed in New York
 
on my 50th birthday, I attended one of those
“Free” lunches at an über posh hotel
the catch was I had to listen to a short
presentation: “the Owl is in his leafy temple,”
intoned the high priest. “Owl of Bohemia,
grant us thy counsel! thy streptobacillus
and thy research staff, they comfort me.”
 
I don’t know what all the hubbub is about
iceberg = head lettuce = crisphead
acres of greens, sans E.coli O157:H7 or Zsa Zsa Gabor
even an ignorant man knows a genius is someone
who was made possible, in part, by a grant from
the New York State Council on the Arts
 
I don’t know what I am saying in German
what I am trying to say in Berlitz is that
my brain fires in a way that is, I don’t
know, maybe not from this realm,
but not to the same degree that
Giacometti’s Woman With Her Throat Cut
resembles an actual woman in extremis
 
 
 
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Angela Genusa‘s work has appeared in Abraham Lincoln, Action Yes Quarterly, The Continental Review, Dusie, JUNK JET, Lamination Colony, McSweeneys, Shampoo, Sprung Formal, West Wind Review, and WORK.