"If I can't have you" [by David Shapiro]

"If I can't have you"

I don't want a district
I don't want a district attorney
like Job
I don't want to get along get away
get beyond get together
geyser and geyserite

If I can't have you
get obtain procure
secure acquire gain win
earn
to come into possession
get is a very general term
obtain suggests expenditure
procure implies effort
win adds to gain
earn implies a correspondence

If I can't have you
steep tense and stark
If I can't have you
I don't want a garden outside Jerusalem
inanimate subject matter in a stream
so gentle the birth of death is not visible
Natural stigmata
a bundle of light rays
intersecting me at a single point

If I don't have you
a spring throws forth
intermittent jets of heated water
in whitish or grayish discretionary masses

You are an opal
If I can't have you
an intermittent fever
If I can't have you
dead or alive all or none
the darkroom preserved in solitude
where profane utensils

If I can't have you
a contest or struggle
in which one side now the
other has the lead
If I can't have you
your large showy head of blue flowers
If I can't have you
spirit desire resentment
belly abdomen inclinations
"If I can;t have you
I don't want nobody baby"

-- David Shapiro