Lower the Stakes

with Cate Blanchett. She is a white witch
devil woman
child venus
fly tramp
stamp. Her pigtails like Lucifer's, the gut
has wrenched itself open
when I see her onscreen
I know it's not supposed to be
a horror movie but to me it is.
William Carlos Williams never had to know her.
He was lucky. And we have his poetry, too.
Cate Blanchett is the scary mother moth
of never-flying-into-the-flame
no matter how much you want that.
I almost saw her at Burger King, too,
and everyone was crowding her burger and fry
time with calls and shynesses so loud you could feel them.
She ate a Whopper and when she got some of the blood in her teeth
I was relieved. She looked human. Normally in her whiteness
a stench the reverse of visual silence. Her eyes
cling to anything but wrapper.
They try but I walk away, I tell my eyes, Stop and step the fuck out.
She stole away into clouds
and the burger she'd eaten was gone into dust
in her feathers. Interest, resmile yourself out of whispers. Nothing is good or bad.
But Cate. Her last name a descriptor, an awful histological etymology.
Who is badddddddddrumming her fingernails on my consciousness like a toothache.
Look down at the ground when she passes.
Look down at the tiggerwrought earth.