APOLOGY OF GENIUS
BY MINA LOY
Ostracized as we are with God—
- The watchers of the civilized wastes
- reverse their signals on our track
- Lepers of the moon
- all magically diseased
- we come among you
- innocent
- of our luminous sores
- unknowing
- how perturbing lights
- our spirit
- on the passion of Man
- until you turn on us your smooth fool's faces
- like buttocks bared in aboriginal mockeries
- We are the sacerdotal clowns
- who feed upon the wind and stars
- and pulverous pastures of poverty
- Our wills are formed
- by curious disciplines
- beyond your laws
- You may give birth to us
- or marry us
- the chances of your flesh
- are not our destiny—
- The cuirass of the soul
- still shines—</poem>
