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Now available for preorder:
The San Francisco Panorama
.

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Oratio Moderna.

BY ETHAN PAQUIN

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 o the times you poured a dour muscatel,
 god, bastard—you are the wrong god seated
 for this, our new wilderness. there is trash
 that appears friendlier than thou. some neon
 accusations—"Hoagies" and "Live Strippers"
 and "Oil-in-a-Minute"—what is this skyline, 

 what is the _______. here in this miniature skyline
 there are shades of smoky musk. do tell 
 all the minions of the flesh—strippers, 
 pornographers, painters—to be seated 
 and await the sermon. they will as neon 
 tubes be jolted to awakening. no more trashy 

 thoughts. yes, you, my dear god, trash-
 remover in the sky, lord of sky and circle and line 
 and my best teacher, beam revelatory neon-
 bright awareness. all theology is so much musculature, 
 flex'd on the weak or wicked, supposedly. sit, 
 will you? listen—like water—that which strips 

 away the _______ to a bareness. strippers 
 got it right: remove the rhinestones, that trash 
 (makeup, bras, ad inf.). all the johns seated
 in the front row wear hats resembling the skyline
 of Buffalo. they are, yes, intoxicated by muscatel
 and various human whiffs. look at all the neon 

 reminding us of how real it is, that goddamned neon—
 ungodly invention, luring us in. all the strippers 
 got us hooked on their new breast versions. muscatel 
 never tasted so good, realer than psalmery. trashed, 
 one can saunter through a really tiny kitten's skyline 
 when hammered—gin, varied theocracies, etc. seated 

 at the podium, one can say "bitch-ass trick"; seated 
 at the podium, one can boom a voice distinct as neon 
 and farther and wider than any damned skyline
 known to nobody but those in touch—strippers, 
 minions of "hellish agency," professors, Eurotrash, 
 all knowledgeable on their coke and shiny muscatel; 

 seated 'neath a neon skyline, bleach'd strippers
 and sluts and hardy priests, all cheap, all get trashed
 on cheap and heady and varied, all heady, muscatels. 

 

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