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PN Review 275
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This poem is taken from PN Review 63, Volume 15 Number 1, September - October 1988.

Three Poems Peter Harley

Whereas

Whereas a lawyer begins a long sentence whereas,
and whereas everyone knows that whereas
is not a word, whereas clearing the throat
would do just as well; and whereas the lawyer uses
whereases increasingly meaninglessly,
whereas he could just as easily
flip out his dick in a little cartoon
of himself in the margin saying whereas,
and whereas that would give more satisfaction
than anticipation, which is all that whereas has
ever offered; and whereas there is never an answer
to the implicit questions and unending logic
which evaporate before they arrive anywhere,
whereas the entire practice stinks; and whereas
it is hereby prohibited from ever being used by anyone
...


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