This poem is taken from PN Review 258, Volume 47 Number 4, March - April 2021.

Order

John FitzGerald
Whereas love is a four-letter word
without cursive complication,

whereas love can roll over ungloved,
and is cloven and clover-leaved,

whereas love will fester in the
suprasternal notch of the beholden,

whereas love permits lust, and lust
perversion, and perversion pain,

whereas love poses a threat to the
sustainability of the sedulous line,

whereas love disrespects solity,
which is to say is rife, at play, abroad –

I issue the following Emergency Order.

All social contact requires strict use
of appropriate protective syntax.

Palatal implosives must not be voiced
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