William Burroughs – Takis Magnetic Sculpture

William Burroughs

Given to Indulgence

the phonograph x-rayed my heart

revealing my masks

made transparent,

beyond the rain and taxi’s

i had found her seclusion

in naked objectivity,

plaster pale soft crumble skin

body parts watched

with cigarettes and champagne

i saw concealed secrets

and heard songs clearer

than birds in the aquarium,

her surface

seen with ermine handles

places only i would open

was i allowed,

finding folded letters

written already to me,

without violence

her form held more than torso

expression beneath smoke and satin,

i would unfold these letters

contained with words

i must adhere to

without contradiction,

they would not be replaced

paper too fragile

extracted for only the moment

my skin grease dissolved them

immediately and in sadness
yet no regret

only honesty and strength

Venus de Milo with Drawers, 1936, Salvador Dali

 

Subtraction From

in the obstinate realm

of flightless thought,

a man may lay down

finding all muscles non compliant,

he had a chance

that possibility to extract

a thought chick from the nest,

without down stark uninteresting

pallid pink nothing

with voracious appetite,

cast away

all limits remain,

lust , love and desire

three traps set for him

all ensnaring,

have caught him

escape an alternative

only accomplished with thought,

yet he could not think,

each entice

her whisper,

a touch upon bare flesh,

the merest smile,

beguiled, her medusa words

turn flesh to stone,

marble for her own touch

contoured to her own wanting

it was her savor,

not his

a phallic model of molecular degeneration,

reduced to base instincts and constructs,

he was for her

and her alone