AnnMarie Eldon

man-i-fes-to

we associate revelry with carnival and a woman’s face: a
languid smile, an arched eyebrow, a
tongue flicked invitingly along
the border of a lower lip

but men have reason to fear the written text
from the nefarious masculinizing
effects of literacy

symmetry: that consensus to wrest away the altars and temples
the printing press made
humanly possible

by which reformers agree that love through a woman’s ears
is not written in the sand
legs, breasts, beards, scents, buttocks and ankles
come from the same erogenous root:

and whose face is eaten
and whose face constitutes beautiful
in general is written by the elite

reformation’s rigid repressive self-
discipline possible only because
to eat flesh a man falls through

celibacy

yet the sand
is not written
from the sand

the human face
eludes definition

the carnivore derives consensus
invitingly

the reformation’s rigid repression makes
the border that the necessary
first step is not
general

reason
and a woman cannot
                             fall
                                 and a woman
                                                   cannot fall
                                           cannot
                                         fall

love through this and what was written in the sand
was not written
and what was not
was an unspoken and constitutes beautiful
and whose face: a languid smile, an arched eyebrow, a
symmetry that constitutes beauty eludes definition

from the written text
                              from the written
                                    from written

from altars
           temples
               the most erogenous zone is

             flicked invitingly along
                flicked invitingly along
                   flicked invitingly long

the nefarious association
    the border of literacy/symmetry that the elite

suggests we associate

love through her ears
 rigid’s repress made
   beautiful from the wrote in an unspoken

and what He did not say
was not



but

         we a