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"Dust Factory" by Cleveland Wall

With fretting and scratching,

my industry generates
wool pills whose use

is yet undiscovered.
They cling to my side

not daring to venture forth.
I generate dandruff
which launches off

the top of my head
but quails and settles

about my shoulders— alas,
not for sheer love of me.
But I am diligent all day
manufacturing these things

and pilgrims come:

a bit of tape, say,
befriended by lint or fallen hair,
comes seeking harbor,
poor lost thing,

and the chance to ride

for a while. These incidentals

accompany me wherever I go,
so we’re never lonely

except on wash days.

"Corsage for Myself" by Cleveland Wall

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If you were a clown, you would be

an insane clown!

If you were a helicopter, you would be

an insane helicopter!

But if you were a flavor, you’d be

tutti frutti—

and become everyone’s favorite.

Yes, you preening thing,

naughty as you are, you are

a splendid fountaining April

champagne and the rain

is your personal muse

and coiffeur, so

chin up, baby! You still are the star

of this movie: ripe tomato

of a cult classic fecklessly lobbed

to the freaks of the future.

"Feel-Good" by Cleveland Wall

At the end of the movie
the bad man mends
his ways and now
he’s a big lug; we like
him just as much
as the guy who was good
in the first place, because
the change is so
dramatic—but:
Wouldn’t it be better
if he were simply
crushed by a log?

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