Midlife

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
ché la diritta via era smarrita.

Venom-tanned razzle lit mid-mosaic:
rise at our vulpine vicar’s aroma.
I avail art’s métier a hard crit. A

vatic moment. Slain men doze, lizard
lumps. I roar avarice, rit a venous
aria, chart éliter divas a trim

line in nozzle tread. Sod it, cava! Mmm!
Carouse its apial nova, rum river,
arid chiasma via tart, areté lir.

Dazzle Inc. revisited: a malt nom-nom
riles to a vermin paracusia. A vour
arts a démarche air: I... I... Vital tar

at mod-maven nostril mazed, zen-civil
in a sour ‘nitemare urr-pavlova’ [sic].
I arrive mard, shit a tiara: éclat!

George Ttoouli's most recent book is from Animal Illicit (Broken Sleep, 2020).