Most Read... Rebecca WattsThe Cult of the Noble Amateur
(PN Review 239)
John McAuliffeBill Manhire in Conversation with John McAuliffe
(PN Review 259)
Patricia CraigVal Warner: A Reminiscence
(PN Review 259)
Eavan BolandA Lyric Voice at Bay
(PN Review 121)
Vahni CapildeoOn Judging Prizes, & Reading More than Six Really Good Books
(PN Review 237)
Christopher MiddletonNotes on a Viking Prow
(PN Review 10)
Next Issue Stav Poleg's Banquet Stanley Moss In a concluding conversation, with Neilson MacKay John Koethe Poems Gwyneth Lewis shares excerpts from 'Nightshade Mother: a disentangling' John Redmond revisits 'Henneker's Ditch'
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
Reader Survey
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 150, Volume 29 Number 4, March - April 2003.

The Procedure Paul Muldoon

I

One still wore a wristband from the disco
where we'd flattered each other through the strobe
long before she was of an age to boast
as many tongues as many-tongued Rumor.


II

It dawned as it dawns on San Francisco
on another who rummaged in her robe
and varied the standard issue tea and toast
with a grapefruit the size of a tumor.
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image