GRENDEL'S HELL 

“I move down through 
the darkness, burning 
with murderous lust"
—Seamus Heaney, Beowulf
__________________

My mother's the Devil's—
own Monster Hell Bride
brooding on her wrongs

Forced to love Adam—
bringing forth the 
sullen brood of mankind
______________

Then exiled from the—
Garden of Eden taking me
her son Cain with her

But not before she has—
me kill her youngest son
Able my own brother
________________

Branded as Outlaw—
I'm marked for good
having murdered Adam’s son

Turning into gross Grendel—
horrible monstrous creature
doomed forever Outsider
______________

We move thru the wilds—
the cold depths, shunned by
human company and joy

Damned infernal Dominatrix—
and her killer brooding son—
taking revenge on mankind

EROTICS OF COMPOSITION 

“The erotics of 
composition are
essential to the 
process”—Seamus 
Heaney, Beowulf
______________

The Spear-Danes—
in these troubled days 
full of great courage

Aboard their sleek—
fast longboats along
the coasts and currents
______________

Surely there is—
no hanky-panky on
these Viking crafts

Altho one might ask—
if such close quarters
provoke butt-fucking?
______________

Seafarers sighting—
sunlit cliffs, sheer crags
and looming landfalls

Down the gangplank—
bow churning in surf
war-gear in the hold
______________

The clash of mail—
the thresh of gear
rigged out for combat

Sailing the sea-lane—
steep-hulled ships
disembarking on shore
____________

The homoerotics of—
Beowulfian composition
butchy verse-craft?

Curved prows to—
preen more than just
mighty sea waves?

THE WORD-HOARD 

“The leader of the troop—
unlocked his word-hoard”
—Seamus Heaney, Beowulf
_________

I belong by birth to the—
Anglo-Saxon tongue & its
Treasure-trove of words

I owe allegiance to the—
English language from
which these words flow
________

All over the world—
men wise in counsel
continue to remember

We have arrived here—
on a great errand and
nothing is hidden

GRENDEL THE PINHEAD 

“There is no limit to desire 
but desire's needs.” 
― John Gardner, Grendel
_______________

Grendel isn’t exactly—
the smartest monster in
Anglo-Saxon mythology

He's actually rather—
retarded, one could say
Grendel is a Pinhead
__________

He doesn’t have much—
brains up there in his 
low-IQ pretty little head

Gendel’s problem is—
he thinks with his
other head down below
______________

His dickhead instead—
not exactly known for
being very smart

But Grendel has this—
animal intelligence that
comes with lotsa cum

YOUNG GRENDEL 

“The way the sky does
when heaven’s candle
is shining cruelly.”
—Seamus Heaney,
Beowulf
______________

The gross acts that young—
Grendel commits are so
terrible & transmogrifying 

Transforming himself into—
whatever butchy stud he
can get off late at night
__________

Lurking behind the—
Mead Hall for drunken
troops and house-guards

Peeing their brew—
beneath glowing Aurora
Borealis Northern skies
___________

Transmigrating himself—
from one brutal proud prick 
to another Hrothgar stud

Sucked dry by the monster—
greedy for each cumly squirt
and heaved-up spermy wad
____________

Such is his stroke and—
monstrous suction that all
that's left is a corpse

Their swords wilted into—
gory icicles, slathering and
thawing like the frost

BEHIND THE MEAD HALL 

“like emanations from 
some fissure in the 
bedrock of the human 
capacity to endure”
—Seamus Heaney
__________________

Alone with his longing, going down—

on the local young drunks peeing in

the back of the King’s local pub

Haunting the local mead halls—

looking for a young Beowulf stud

erect like the Stonehenge ruins

_____________

Nothing can help not even—

J. R. R. Tolkien or Seamus Heaney

or bamboozling Ted Hughes

It’s the misery endured by any—

man who’s fallen in love with a

teenage Viking’s Grendel schwanz

________________

Night after night he cruises—

having no interest in living thru

another stupid boring epic

The guys behind the mead hall—

louche young lounge lizards 

let him grovel for Grendel

BEOWULF NOW 

“I work all day, 
and get drunk 
at night”
—Phillip Larkin
TLS Christmas 1977
__________________

Above a Norwegian fjord—
I cast a huge spiral funeral fire
billowing for my lover Beowulf

Fumes of wood-smoke—
the blaze roared & drowned
the weeping for my comrade
__________

But it did no good—
I cast the runes and they
said your Lord is gone

Gird your butchy loins—
my dear, be disconsolate for 
more than just Beowulf’s demise

CURSE OF THE DEMON 

“Upright, rudimentary, 
shapeshiftingly pricked
in the long ago then,
yet erectly forward”
—Beowulf 
_______________

“It has been written since 
the beginning of time, even 
unto these ancient stones, 
that evil supernatural creatures 
exist in a world of darkness. 
And it is also said man using 
the magic power of the ancient 
runic symbols can call forth 
these powers of darkness, 
the demons of Hell.”
—Curse of the Demon (1957)
______________

I sucked him off during the—
Stonehenge summer solstice
just as the sun was rising

I got my young Druid pagan—
off once, twice, three times
it made up for Beanfield
__________

He leaned up against one—
of the tall stone monoliths
erect Easter Island stud

Runes glowed in the dawn—
Anglo-Saxon cum was mine 
Beowulf weak in the knees
____________

Seamus Heaney the poet—
nodded approvingly at my
testicular translation

The Empire ejaculated—
just like Ted Hughes did
I crave Poet Laureates

Marion Lorne and Athena Seyler 

TWO DITZY QUEEN BEES 

“She is Cinderella, the creature…
the shining-haired, the starry-eyed, 
the ruby-lipped virgo aeternis, of 
which there is presumably one, and 
only one, or a one-and-only for each 
male, whose dream is fixed upon her 
perpetual possession”—Phillip Wylie, 
Generation of Vipers 
___________________

It’s hard to say which Queen Bee—
is more the penultimate Dominatrix?

The “Momism” meme so dominant—
so domineering in American noir…
____________

Is it lovely doting Marion Lorne—
Bruno Anthony’s tres ditzy mother

Giving him morning manicures—
luxuriating in his swank bathrobe?
______________

Simply awfully spoiling Robert Walker—
in Hitchcock’s STRANGERS ON A TRAIN?

Putting the make on young tennis players—
propositioning guys in the art of murder?
______________________

Or is it Athena Seyler the queen bee—
behind her wicked son Julian Karswell 

The devil cult leader causing all sorts of—
demonic distress amongst British academe?
________________

Handsome, debonair Dana Andrews—
soon arrives to straighten matters out

Only to be whisked away to a séance—
set-up by ditzy Karswell’s mother
_________________

And what a crazy séance it is—
even more ditzy than Athena Seyler

Sing-song voices outta the past—
table-tapping, things whacking
_____________

The Other Side seems to be full of—
ditzy demonic campy charlatans

Even Peggy Cummins's sports car—
a Sunbeam convertible Alpine Mark I 
____________

Seems to be cursed by the demons—
with a strange license plate NLJ 666

Nevertheless Julian Karswell is—
full of entertaining magical tricks
_____________

Conjuring up a terrible windy storm—
in the middle of a picnic for kiddies

His grand mansion paid for my his—
frightened poor minions of followers
___________

Offers Dana Andrews some scares—
in the dark middle of the night

As well as playing games with him—
optical illusions in his hotel halls
____________

All sorts of weird special-effects—
even better than Hollywood tricks

Plus a scary iridescent scintillating—
devilish thing that descends down
____________

On whoever possesses a runic spell—
scribbled on a piece of parchment

Like those foreboding Stonehenge—
curses engraved on the tall Stones

DANA AND THE DEAD 

“Watch a movie once
for the story; watch a
movie a second time
and you begin to notice
how it is put together”
—Carl Rollyson 
Hollywood Enigma:
Dana Andrews
_________________

Laura (1944)
Fallen Angel (1945)
Night of the Demon (1957)
__________

Detective Dana Andrews—
is haunted by the dead

when beautiful Gene Tierney—
supposedly murdered returns

To her apartment where Dana—
sleeps beneath her portrait

Having fallen in love with her—
while investigating her death
__________

Then comes Linda Darnell—
sullen sultry femme fatale 

Plus some occult hocus-pocus—
with Professor Madley’s seance

Played by wily John Carradine—
doing his camp carnie circuit act

Leaving Alice Faye flummoxed—
and lovely Linda Darnell dead
___________

But even more interesting—
when Dana Andrews travels to

England to investigate some—
Paranormal Stonehenge events

Conjured up by Jacques Tourneur—
with an evil runic magician

Whose mad mother Mrs. Karswell—
played by ditsy Athene Seyler reminds
_____________

One very much of mad Marion Lorne—
Bruno Anthony’s schizoid dear mother

The ultimate “Momism” matriarch—
out of Philip Wylie’s scathing book

GENERATION OF VIPERS (1942)—
about American Cold War culture

Around which Hitchcock filmed—
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951)

EASY 

“Her peculiar brand of horror
comes less from the inevitability
of disaster, then from the ease
which it might have been avoided”
—Francis Wyndham, “Miss Highsmith,” 
New Statesman 31 May 1963
______________

He could’ve said no—
but he didn’t because
he needed to get off

He knew I was just as—
fixated on him as he was
plus he needed money
___________

He was pretty easy—
the ease with which he
let it happen each time

But I wasn't easy—
killing him sweetly
slowly, each time

Bruno's Big Daddy

Marion Lorne’s (Mrs. Anthony) Portrait 

Painting of Jonathan Hale (Bruno’s father)

BIG DADDY 

“I felt quite close
to murder”
—Patricia Highsmith
__________

Sylvia Plath and—
Patricia Highsmith
both Bitch Goddesses

Plath’s famous poem—
DADDY a classic 
satire of Patriarchy
_____________________

While Highsmith—
uses Bruno played
by Robert Walker

To dish his crummy—
domineering father in
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN

STRANGERS ON A TRAIN 

“a murderer 
looks like anyone”
—Patricia Highsmith
______________________

I suppose I was—
like Bruno & Bruno
was like me

Before Hitchcock—
played with the novel
changing roles around
_____________

Highsmith had set-up—
a noir murder romance
and so did I, honey

I sucked off Guy—
a cold-blooded blowjob
after offing his wife

Colleen Kane

NIGHT SWIM 

“She had a vision 
of a pale white flower, 
shimmering as if seen 
in darkness, or through 
water.”― Patricia Highsmith, 
The Price of Salt
_________________

“Don’t waste it”—
I told him once
in the dorm

Opening his door—
finding him there
beating off in bed
________________

Balmer Hall—
across the street
from the Pool

Later we’d—
go swimming 
nude at night

Colleen Kane

THE SHOWERS 

“Happiness was like a green vine 
spreading through her, stretching 
fine tendrils, bearing flowers 
through her flesh.” ―Patricia 
Highsmith, The Price of Salt
___________________

The young Creole’s—
face in the shower
got longer, longer

Distending like—
his dick, getting
longer, darker
_______________

Making me—
feel so awfully
weak in the knees

Until finally—
I groveled down
at his toes

BUTTERFLY MCQUEEN 

“I would like to write
a suspense novel which
has no murder, nor crime,
no violent action”
—Patricia Highsmith
_________

I didn’t know—
nothin' about birthin'
babies, dontchaknow

All I knew was—
doin the down-low
& getting him off
______________

I craved it—
that tart salty taste
of his baby-paste

Was it murder—
the way he’d die
each time he came?

Colleen Kane

SOUTHERN DECADENCE 

“Perversion interests
me most and is my
guiding darkness”
—Patricia Highsmith
__________

Surrounded by—
pimply-faced jerks
malformed males

Campus freaks—
from Shreveport
and the bayous
______________

Most of the boys—
seemed like awful
patched-up Karloffs

She spent her time—
at the Huey P. Long
Fieldhouse Pool

Roland Topar

KEPT MAN 

“I usually go along
with the male murderer,
I can’t identify with 
anything else”
—Patricia Highsmith
___________

I’d always—
been a useless
kept man

Kept by the—
somewhat bored
Decadent South
__________

Something to—
entertain the spoiled
Gay Delta Muse 

I was even worse—
that dizzy ditzy
Butterfly McQueen!!!

BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN 

“A lot of sordidness
mattered now”
—Patricia Highsmith
The Talented Mr. Ripley
_____________

She felt more like—
“Bride of Frankenstein”
to tell the truth

Elsa Lanchester—
stuck with a sordid
ugly monster lover
__________

Sent to college—
by Mommy Dearest
just to get rid of her

Exiled from Big Easy—
to boring Baton Rouge
black sheep of the family

THE TASTE OF SALT 

“Obsessions are the
only things that matter”
—Patricia Highsmith
The Price of Salt
____________________

She sat there—
by the pool pretending
she was somebody else

Thumbing through the—
Times-Picayune totally
bored with herself
____________

“Are you Frankenstein—
material?” the tacky
ad said on the page

She turned the page
quickly, it was much
to close to the truth