FALSE PRETENSES

            I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.
There to see the show, she slid neatly onto the stool.
             “Were you there?” “I was but I evaporated.”
A poor excuse for a life worth living without insurance.

            Nothing has “genuine human appeal.”
“I would have walked to Delaware.”
            It’s a matter of what you like and whom you feel.
Where power lies, power lies.

            I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.
But they were caught at the border.
             “Were you there?” “I was but I evaporated.”
One death of accumulated bile deserves another.

            Nothing has “genuine human appeal.”
Absolute power lies absolutely.
            It’s a matter of what you like and whom you feel.
Other times you’re glad to get rid of it.

            I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.
Strong enough to blow the man down.
             “Were you there?” “I was but I evaporated.”
As we stood at the door trying to decide.

            Nothing has “genuine human appeal.”
Making hay while the sun shines bright on my old Kentucky home.
            It’s a matter of what you like and whom you feel.
The correct form of OCD with which to appease the deity.

            I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.
Eventually it gets easier to slam the door gently.
             “Were you there?” “I was but I evaporated.”
Her tortured imagery and my tortured syntax.

            Nothing has “genuine human appeal.”
In any case, they pull it off, or fuck it up.
            It’s a matter of what you like and whom you feel.
And the living is easy. For someone else.

Ian Ganassi’s work has appeared recently or will appear soon in numerous literary magazines, such as New American Writing, BlazeVox, Twisted Vine, Manhattanville Review, Visitant, and The American Journal of Poetry, among many others. His poetry collection Mean Numbers was published in 2016. His new collection, True for the Moment, is forthcoming from MadHat Press. Selections from an ongoing collaboration with a painter can be found at http://www.thecorpses.com.