Quentin as Closet-Case
____________________________________
____________________________________
“Shreve might not be
in Quentin’s pants, but
he’s surely in his head,
a far more terrifying
place for him to be.”
—Noel Polk, “How Shreve
Gets in to Quentin’s Pants,”
Faulkner and Welty and
The Southern Literary Talent
Poor Quentin
Dalton Ames knows it—
And so does Shreve McCannon
They know Quentin’s queer.
They know him better—
More than Quentin knows himself
Mississippi queen.
All of Harvard knows—
Quentin be a closet case
Yes, Quentin be gay.
Quentin falls in love—
With young butch Shreve Mccannon
Same with Dalton Ames.
Jealous of Caddy—
He goes down on Dalton Ames
On the bridge back then.
He’s seen them make love—
Caddy toes pointing straight up
Dalton’s toes straight down.
Even Benjy knows—
Quentin be a real slut now
Just like Caddy is…
On the Bridge
Quentin closet case—
Tries so hard not to be queer
But he can’t help it.
Dalton is all male—
Quentin and Caddy want him
They have the same lips.
Ames lets him have it—
Calls him “Caddy” when he cums
Quentin swoons away.
The Modernist way—
Long streams of consciousness
Dream-like, disjointed.
Alluding to sex—
Homoerotic love play
All in italics…
He isn’t thinking—
Quentin as a source of sex
It was Caddy’s lips.
He looks thru Quentin—
Like thru a piece of stained glass
Why meddle with names?
June Second 1910
“I was I am not”—
Mississippi or Harvard
I’m dead bones down here.
I jump off the bridge—
It’s not the Tallahatchie
It’s Charles River.
Where the boyz are nude—
Skinny-dipping having fun
They invite Quentin.
So easy to be—
“Blind immortal boy” again
In person this time.
I fucked it up tho—
Confused by little sister
My secret urges.
Beating of hot blood—
Young handsome well-hung Dalton
Going all the way.
Making me swallow it—
Dalton’s untethered huge hog
Down Hades abyss.
The River
I could smell the curves—
the river beyond the dusk
last light supine down.
The tranquil tideflats—
Beyond lights the clear pale sky
Dalton’s trembling dick.
Refuge in his pubes—
Conflict temporarily
Silenced by cuming.
Sudden sharp tart taste—
Salty as tears his snotty
Brothel between his legs.
Deep I Memphis trance—
Naked in Miss Reba’s place
Dalton subdues me.
Cuming into my—
Oh Jesus Christ he’s so hot!!!
No wonder I’m queer!!!
The aching rain—
Between silences inside me
Dalton flowing deep.
Shreve at Harvard
I can still taste him—
Invisible blood flowing
My cute young Greek vase.
Past my hot lean lips—
Staining my swan-throat with his
Young thick Moses Rod.
The long warm fingers—
Leaving me breathing hard there
The whispering dorm.
I need Shreve bad—
Like I needed Dalton Ames
Love those Harvard squirts.
Shuddering so hard—
Shreve thinks I’m gonna die
I’ve tried many times.
Somewhere I heard it—
Mississippi drumming down
In my beating heart.
Monologues
Like Jason I keep—
Retuning to the scene of
Incestuous crime.
Going down on Ames—
Dalton’s girlfriends know the truth
Legs around his neck.
The Rod of Aaron—
The seed of young Abraham
Jacob’s cute angel.
My long monologue—
Hovers like moths before flames
And then retreating.
It’s colloquial—
Roots in spoken dialects
Oral intercourse.
When I lose control—
Sex, syntax, all of language
Goes out the window.
Faulkner keeps it up—
Typing away late at night
Rowan Oaks whiskey…
Trying Not to Say
“Faulkner though achieves
the effect f cinematic
montage…juxtaposition
significant episodes…
intimately intertwined”
—Noel Polk,
Children of the Dark House
Benjy tries to say—
But cant while his brothers try
Not to say what’s there.
Jason keeps talking—
He can’t help himself talking
He over-controls…
Quentin is desperate—
He shapes his syntax, grammar
Toward closetry.
Both Dalton Ames and—
Shreve McCannon his husband
Penultimate pricks.
Humiliation—
Imagined conversations
Talking with father.
Episodes control—
Ironic self-reflexive
Gay witty wordplay.
Mélange of denial—
Negatives, mordant syntax
Saddest boy of all…
Spoade
Every closet-case—
Has a Spoade lurking in there
Only too ready…
Squealing the secret—
Shreve be Quentin’s young husband
He loves to bottom.
It’s a train of thought—
Going back to Jefferson
Queer Quentin the fag.
His conversations—
Discomforted by closet
Homoerotics…
Shreve shrugs it all off—
So what if he’s not fucking
Cute sluts like we do?
Spoade a terrapin—
In a street full of Harvard
Dead desperate leaves.
Quentin unravels—
Séances with Dalton Ames
Dangerous bridges.
Benjy’s bleak golf course—
Full of lost golf balls eve
Benjy’s testicles.
Quentin desperate—
Not wanting to put in words
Unmentionables…
Henry Sutpen
Seancing the past—
Channeling the Sutpen voice
Letting it speak now.
Quentin & Henry—
Easily becoming what
Déjà vu can do.
Coached & abetted—
By shreve’s constant questioning
Dialog begins…
Sutpen’s design seems—
To overwhelm narrative
Queering Bon as dinge.
But Henry goes down—
In the Old Miss dorm at night
Surely knows Bon’s dinge?
Why not let Judith—
Get to know Mandingo love
And breed more young Bon’s?
Quentin like Henry—
Young Deep South closet case
Sees into the Past.
Harvard
Quentin hates Harvard—
His Deep South dinge queenery
Doesn’t come off good.
Back to Jefferson—
Jason scowling in the wings
Benjy castrated.
Caddy got married—
Her husband queer for Quentin
His Compson goodlooks.
What was there to go—
Back to in Mississippi?
Homophobia?
His father’s death and—
Mother’s crying all the time
Jason ditching it all.
Harvard taught you how—
To jump off a bridge into
A river’s cool death.
No wonder Quentin—
Simply jumped off the bridge
He hated the South…
in Quentin’s pants, but
he’s surely in his head,
a far more terrifying
place for him to be.”
—Noel Polk, “How Shreve
Gets in to Quentin’s Pants,”
Faulkner and Welty and
The Southern Literary Talent
Poor Quentin
Dalton Ames knows it—
And so does Shreve McCannon
They know Quentin’s queer.
They know him better—
More than Quentin knows himself
Mississippi queen.
All of Harvard knows—
Quentin be a closet case
Yes, Quentin be gay.
Quentin falls in love—
With young butch Shreve Mccannon
Same with Dalton Ames.
Jealous of Caddy—
He goes down on Dalton Ames
On the bridge back then.
He’s seen them make love—
Caddy toes pointing straight up
Dalton’s toes straight down.
Even Benjy knows—
Quentin be a real slut now
Just like Caddy is…
On the Bridge
Quentin closet case—
Tries so hard not to be queer
But he can’t help it.
Dalton is all male—
Quentin and Caddy want him
They have the same lips.
Ames lets him have it—
Calls him “Caddy” when he cums
Quentin swoons away.
The Modernist way—
Long streams of consciousness
Dream-like, disjointed.
Alluding to sex—
Homoerotic love play
All in italics…
He isn’t thinking—
Quentin as a source of sex
It was Caddy’s lips.
He looks thru Quentin—
Like thru a piece of stained glass
Why meddle with names?
June Second 1910
“I was I am not”—
Mississippi or Harvard
I’m dead bones down here.
I jump off the bridge—
It’s not the Tallahatchie
It’s Charles River.
Where the boyz are nude—
Skinny-dipping having fun
They invite Quentin.
So easy to be—
“Blind immortal boy” again
In person this time.
I fucked it up tho—
Confused by little sister
My secret urges.
Beating of hot blood—
Young handsome well-hung Dalton
Going all the way.
Making me swallow it—
Dalton’s untethered huge hog
Down Hades abyss.
The River
I could smell the curves—
the river beyond the dusk
last light supine down.
The tranquil tideflats—
Beyond lights the clear pale sky
Dalton’s trembling dick.
Refuge in his pubes—
Conflict temporarily
Silenced by cuming.
Sudden sharp tart taste—
Salty as tears his snotty
Brothel between his legs.
Deep I Memphis trance—
Naked in Miss Reba’s place
Dalton subdues me.
Cuming into my—
Oh Jesus Christ he’s so hot!!!
No wonder I’m queer!!!
The aching rain—
Between silences inside me
Dalton flowing deep.
Shreve at Harvard
I can still taste him—
Invisible blood flowing
My cute young Greek vase.
Past my hot lean lips—
Staining my swan-throat with his
Young thick Moses Rod.
The long warm fingers—
Leaving me breathing hard there
The whispering dorm.
I need Shreve bad—
Like I needed Dalton Ames
Love those Harvard squirts.
Shuddering so hard—
Shreve thinks I’m gonna die
I’ve tried many times.
Somewhere I heard it—
Mississippi drumming down
In my beating heart.
Monologues
Like Jason I keep—
Retuning to the scene of
Incestuous crime.
Going down on Ames—
Dalton’s girlfriends know the truth
Legs around his neck.
The Rod of Aaron—
The seed of young Abraham
Jacob’s cute angel.
My long monologue—
Hovers like moths before flames
And then retreating.
It’s colloquial—
Roots in spoken dialects
Oral intercourse.
When I lose control—
Sex, syntax, all of language
Goes out the window.
Faulkner keeps it up—
Typing away late at night
Rowan Oaks whiskey…
Trying Not to Say
“Faulkner though achieves
the effect f cinematic
montage…juxtaposition
significant episodes…
intimately intertwined”
—Noel Polk,
Children of the Dark House
Benjy tries to say—
But cant while his brothers try
Not to say what’s there.
Jason keeps talking—
He can’t help himself talking
He over-controls…
Quentin is desperate—
He shapes his syntax, grammar
Toward closetry.
Both Dalton Ames and—
Shreve McCannon his husband
Penultimate pricks.
Humiliation—
Imagined conversations
Talking with father.
Episodes control—
Ironic self-reflexive
Gay witty wordplay.
Mélange of denial—
Negatives, mordant syntax
Saddest boy of all…
Spoade
Every closet-case—
Has a Spoade lurking in there
Only too ready…
Squealing the secret—
Shreve be Quentin’s young husband
He loves to bottom.
It’s a train of thought—
Going back to Jefferson
Queer Quentin the fag.
His conversations—
Discomforted by closet
Homoerotics…
Shreve shrugs it all off—
So what if he’s not fucking
Cute sluts like we do?
Spoade a terrapin—
In a street full of Harvard
Dead desperate leaves.
Quentin unravels—
Séances with Dalton Ames
Dangerous bridges.
Benjy’s bleak golf course—
Full of lost golf balls eve
Benjy’s testicles.
Quentin desperate—
Not wanting to put in words
Unmentionables…
Henry Sutpen
Seancing the past—
Channeling the Sutpen voice
Letting it speak now.
Quentin & Henry—
Easily becoming what
Déjà vu can do.
Coached & abetted—
By shreve’s constant questioning
Dialog begins…
Sutpen’s design seems—
To overwhelm narrative
Queering Bon as dinge.
But Henry goes down—
In the Old Miss dorm at night
Surely knows Bon’s dinge?
Why not let Judith—
Get to know Mandingo love
And breed more young Bon’s?
Quentin like Henry—
Young Deep South closet case
Sees into the Past.
Harvard
Quentin hates Harvard—
His Deep South dinge queenery
Doesn’t come off good.
Back to Jefferson—
Jason scowling in the wings
Benjy castrated.
Caddy got married—
Her husband queer for Quentin
His Compson goodlooks.
What was there to go—
Back to in Mississippi?
Homophobia?
His father’s death and—
Mother’s crying all the time
Jason ditching it all.
Harvard taught you how—
To jump off a bridge into
A river’s cool death.
No wonder Quentin—
Simply jumped off the bridge
He hated the South…
No comments:
Post a Comment