Poetry Magazine
Parkdale, then Princess Street
Make them say yes before you even ask,
L’essence de charme, c’est ça. The mind’s a damsel
Locked in a tower with her fathom of hair.
Coax the braid and it’ll all be over.
The rooms are plain where I am interviewed,
Abstract and clinical, and so I glory
Like a corpse plant, perfume the marble-faced
With the reek and prodigy of my tomorrows.
Dying is so boring as the soul
Rummages the liquidation sale
For a final bargain —
But time outbids all comers, and we die
Expensively in Princess Margaret
Who was herself once so beautiful.
NOTES: Read the Q&A with Michael Lista about this poem
Source: Poetry (December 2012).
Biography
Michael Lista is the author of Bloom (House of Anansi Press, 2010). He is poetry editor of the Walrus and poetry columnist for the National Post. He lives in Toronto.
Poem Categorization
SUBJECT Social Commentaries, Crime & Punishment
Poetic Terms Free Verse
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