The price of crude

If I weren’t working in the dark
life wouldn’t be half so interesting;
I’d have to study the barrel cost
of light sweet crude resentment
as if there were an algorithm,
like testing proven reserves,
instead of frolic in a mysterium.
I see the red air tremble when
epithelials are feeding roses;
nothing is more irreducible
than anger poured upon our wake
and if it ever were to run out
how would we gin up wars
and molest the child within?

“The price of crude” is from Far from Algiers (Kent State University Press, 2008).
Audio file of this poem is courtesy of Djelloul Marbrook and The Kent State University Press, from a CD of Marbrook reading the poems from his collection Far from Algiers.