John Ashbery, 1927-2017 (by Mitch Sisskind)

You do change into an insect but,

Pshaw, you knew it would end this way.

It ain’t even half bad. Most folks don’t

Notice and them few that fears you

Aren’t who you want to know anyhow

So fuck ‘em. But first, before anything

Can happen, you got to live long enough

Or maybe too long like some folks say.

Harumpf! I thoroughly enjoyed myself

Aviating up toward colored light bulbs,

Then circling all lazy-like till dawn when

Birds ate me. But it ain’t no never mind.

Listen, if history teaches us anything

It’s just a feeling that comes over you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[The Best American Poetry]

In re your opening line and Kafka's "Metamorphosis,"
"We have seen the city; it is the gibbous
Mirrored eye of an insect."
from "Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror"