“Deliver Us Not Into Evil (Matthew)” from My Father is Li Gang
Flay the good from the skeleton and feed it to the turtles;
flip them on their back and they’ll stay for years.
I want you to want me like that. Lash the skeleton together;
shove the skull into the jellyfish and tell me it’s dancing.
Better, tell me it’s us. Your hair tentacular. The body sinks,
the mouth shuts; the body rises, the jaw drops. The travelled routes
welting up. Your presence is sharp like that. No, this
is not evil, it is worse–even looking startles. Not looking too.
If we knew how to be good, we would still not be good.
If we knew how to be good, we would still not be good.
Nettle-bonnered, the skeleton drifting towards you in the dark;
it glows with thought. This is not evil. This is not you.
Here, Shiva appears with joybuzzers in every one of her hands.
The agency of jellyfish: begging come close, closer, be closed.
Jamison Crabtree and Matthew Conley
