KEY WEST

The Child Idiot

“The boy strangling

under the mimosas”

—Hart Crane, “The Idiot,”

Key West

Simply shocking, my dears—

Doing it for all to see him

Born-again idiot savant

Strangling himself to death—

Fumbling beneath the palms

Moaning in the mimosas

Teenage child idiot—

Infernal retard in the nude

As I hurried by

He was losing it, agape—

His hand playing, pealing it

Tilting midnight moon sky

He couldn’t help it—

I stared at the hopeless kid

Stroking his ghastly tool

My trespassing shame—

Ogling his simply huge penis

His overflowing rose

Key West Revisited

“how gay culture continues
to perform a sly and profound
critique of what passes for normal”
—David M. Halperin, “Normal as Folk,”
The New York Times 6/21/2012

It’s gay pride month again—
And time for the str8t intelligentsia
To get snide about the queer and
Lesbian parades again


Bring on the dykes on bikes—
The Lady Gaga queens in drag
And the usual flaunting floats

Meanwhile the Brooklyn Bridge—

Still spans the East River and

There he is up there on the roof

Columbia Heights—

Emil Opffer gazing out over NYC

Now that Hart Crane is gone

The Fleet’s in again—

But the sailors don’t miss him

Anymore than the other queens

Djuna Barnes is gone too—

An apartment in Greenwich Village 

Along with Mina in the Bowery

How Queer?

“Crane’s boorish erotic

fixation on hypermasculine

working class images of

masculinity.”

—Brian Reed, Hart Crane:

After His Lights

Excuse me, my dear—

Aren’t you getting a bit

Tres Miss Yvor Winters?

Why not throw in—

Miss Whitman’s love for

Soldiers, sailors & farmboys?

Since when is male gaze—

Limited to Adam’s rib or

Reproductive labor?

Rapture ruled by str8t—

Heteronormative policing

Get real, my dear.

Empyrean Rose

“Crane might deserve

a seat in the queen’s

heavenly seat, but he

does not merit a place

in the Empyrean Rose.”

—Brian Reed, Hart Crane:

After His Lights

Such drama queens—

Djuna Barnes & Miss Crane

Wrecking str8t hearts

Fellow ephebes—

Campy, absurd compatriots

Of decadent morbidities

Djuna with her cape—

Hart with his Key West

Pirates of Penzance pizzazz

Reveling themselves—

Flaunting lotsa lavender

And mid-mauve lush