Genya Turovskaya, p.1



PLACEBO AFFLICTION

1.

the defect of those who do not

          tolerate the minute particles

remember this is the new world strain

toward one radius          some to another

          sum of all


happiness is not a potato


to remit

our dismaying origins      we

                                       (in)        (need of)
must count ourselves        dire


among those for whom there can be no forbearance


in this book or elsewhere


the unluckiest ones of all



2.

upstream                    beautiful theories


their ships had

suffered the limits of their bodies

with uneasy heart

          some fragment of their lunacy

consented for the sake

of rhythms more inexorable


          a thousand circadian cartwheels


ludicrous circus marvels of the emperor


          of manual occupation



again in our little bed

motor idling

in the mitigation of loneliness




3.

what alleviated

          what

forsworn by the damage


careful of the censors I am now

reliant on

false

papers                         evening vagaries


ride the tourist bus through the

bad neighborhoods


          snapping

          snapping


4.

          like anything that has been broken once will

break again                              abruptly

iron weathered


powdering into gray states

weeping in the elevator


Death is so alarming

          (the length to which)


          (the impossible subject)


          less and less

a pensioner                              a baby’s head

its armature so small and languishing


          held out

her arms to me

          let me

do the work of my life