Van Loon’s Life

she is the author of my miseries
and my harmonies
(my memories)

like someone pulled
a string through my mind quickly
enough to

tear it in half
that’s
some gaff to be ashamed of

or smacked for
or smacked for
there would be no

hope of understanding it
if it wasn’t for the
way she lied

like I do
gratuitously fluently
genteelly

in desperate handfuls
exacerbating
her sonic shatter

while waters
in towers
chill