Behind the State Capitol

Behind the State Capitol
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Monaco
Comeback Hopes High
for Yvonne De Carlo
Gusta with Evita Peron
Skip the Trompe-d’oiel
Your Parisian Pilgrimage
Sunday Evening
Ennui on Highland Drive
1963
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Monaco

“that still
rules the town”
—John Wieners
“Monaco,” Behind the
State Capitol

monaco still rules—
the town, summerset maugham
grace kelly, a casino

chimes st balcony—
queens, popes, felons
vieux carré it aint

clifton webb goes down—
not on cute robert wagner
but instead titanic sinkage

Comeback Hopes High
for Yvonne De Carlo

“passion’s desire”
—John Wieners
“Louisa Adams,” Behind
the State Capitol

cloaking reborn denials—
no longer svelte streamlined
dismissal by the mob

pausing to do him-
desperate fictive reportage
gay hollywood gossip

she does the down low—
all her fag hags are shocked
dinge desire deluxe

Gusta with Evita Peron

“Please, lets get
down to basics”
—John Wieners
“Gusta with Madame
Simone de Beauvoir,”
Behind the State Capitol

forgoing prior lucidities—
i suppose you wonder why i’ve
asked you here this evening

impressed with your cute—
goodlooks and thrilling bulging
basket full of personal trivialities

i persevere in demeaning—
myself with young neanderthals
missing links like yourself

Skip the Trompe-d’oiel

“it’s gone beyond”
—John Wieners
“Gusta with Madame
Simone de Beauvoir,”
Behind the State Capitol

goodness, gracious—
such pungency betrays a
cumly twilight’s aura

a noble thrust is always—
a good thing in my book
gauche trumps demimonde

delta queen intrigues—
oozing vieux carré plazerias
i’ve acquired innuendoes

Your Parisian Pilgrimage
—for Senator Rufus DeVane King,
Wife of President Buchanan

“what became foreign”
—John Wieners
“Periwig Perignon,”
Behind the State Capitol

so outré gauche, coquettish—
serving your marriage gracefully
there in the gossipy beltway

soup de jour ambassador—
dearest queen devanetta there
amidst parisian gay luxuries

your entourage of young negroes—
valets, butlers, horsemen, lovers
dilly-dallying dinge a la mode

Sunday Evening

“Beauty is mine”
—John Wieners
“Goodbye,” Behind
the State Capitol

cruising in the campus rain—
coming back to the apartment
finding you in bed smoking weed

“where have you been?”—
you ask & i tell you to church
“but they wouldn’t let me in.”

you smirk knowingly—
pulling back the sheets and
dinge communion begins…

Ennui on Highland Drive

“in her Vanderbilt mansion”
—John Wieners
“Ennui to Dyvorak,”
Behind the State Capitol

a bill of divorcement—
a sunken ship’s treasure
a coroner crooning to himself

the dead can be so beguiling—
yet rather expensive too
a young stiff in the mortuary

he gives me itchy palms—
leroy’s lanky kid brother
knows too much about me

1963

“I feel no loss”
—John Wieners
“1952,” Behind
the State Capitol

all I did back then—
was wait around for
him to come home

i had no desire—
to go anywhere
beyond the apartment

the levee languished—
the delta got desperate
but i had my dinge lover