io vorrei- poco a poco

Actually, I would rather lose it
poco a poco,
bit by bit,
like I pick up italian from music class
or as online poker breaks the addict,
like a jar of sidewalk pennies fills
or as shadows lengthen,
a frog in a pot as the water boils
death by straightforwardness
the dwarf star, pulsing with a heartbeat of
tempo one beat per anno
as a redwood grows straight and tall.

I never wanted to notice,
not like a force-fed goose
on a shrubby Canadian foie gras farm
not in a hot wax carwash
or a quick prick from a needled plunger
that pulls up skin in the withdraw.
I don't want to be a comet,
falling to earth as I melt with children's wishes.

I would rather lose it
(with novellas worth of words rather than just 'it')
like a landscape
not a sportswriter's photograph.
I would rather grow slowly that way. 


-Citron