A poem supposedly "loosely based" on the work of Henry Darger. I rather wish the basis were a little less loose. Still, an intriguing, tantalizing-with-almost-sense word salad in its own right. If nothing else, it's heartening to see that someone so anti-rational as Ashbery could have been published in America at all by a mainstream press, had such a long and distinguished career, and been given so much serious critical attention.
The envy of the age sweeps over us, tidying us into pits of darkness
that men shall understand, and forgive their promises
to those who had forgotten them, lauding all future dust-storms
as long as the king will stay alive on the road.
Bird-feeders introduced a new element of sashaying
nobody picked up on, and the directions all were taking was done to death
most slovenly. Where the girls' shorts
had been, only a minus sign stood.
So the bad angels went away, and other creatures returned.
—from Girls on the Run
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