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an onfall
of somewhat heavenly loaves
for your loafing
is the fashion

conditional compassion:
appreciation
of your publicity value
to the Bowery

So here comes help
here comes regeneration
-- even a little alimentary fun
you shall not be left in the lurch

Some passing church
or social worker

confides to a brother
how he has managed to commandeer
a certain provision
of hot-cross buns

his earnestness
hushed by the hiccough holocaust
of otiose
hoboes hob-nobbing
with obtund oafs

in candid cupidity
and oathy psalmody

optimists conducting their poll
of the total calories in alcohol

or describing the sweet inward
upward of "creepy Pete" *

upward --
a flight into celestial resort
to alight in visceral discord

Sample interpolations of the Absolute
Physiognomy exhibiting

-- the unseen palor of a Negro
a Nordic's inner darkness
a silly smile immune to meaning

streaming the static transit of the street
to indecision's crossroads

* WINE