The Vultures

[addy]

"I like Anne Sexton because she was beautiful and she killed herself". - comment on an Anne Sexton fan page God, I laughed at this, what the hell

they swoop down to feed on the reputations
of young writers who killed themselves,
beautiful women and ugly drunk men
who blew out their brains, and were
only discovered once the moths had finished. Something about using "moths" instead of rats or worms made this extra sad for me... like they were made of paper and not flesh (and indeed, in one sense, they were)

they circle my own lines sometimes,
silver claws poised like erections rising very striking image. wow
to meet the feel of a soft womb,
crowing and whining with pretend sympathy,
while secretly waiting until my body
shows up in a makeshift noose.
(I'm not even famous, but still some persist.) great lines... incisive, no-nonsense, sincere
I feel like drawing a shotgun
and blasting them out of the sky.

fuck those savage demon birds!
I’ll live until I’m eighty-two,
still entertaining twenty-four-year old men,
their arses ripe for the plucking. You made the righteous anger here satisfyingly life-affirming and cathartic. Great end.

Again, a poem totally different from what I expected of the title. I like how quietly strong and grounded the voice here was. You, young sir, are wiser than your years