Revised Edition: LukivPress (Victoria, BC), 2019. Previously published as Exchange Program (LukivPress [Quesnel, BC], 1999). // An excerpt // Coleridge // As opium-sweat / Beads on your brow / And your pay-the-rent / Newspaper columns remain / Closed tombs / In your ship-tossed / Mind, / Your wife grinds her teeth, / Your child nurses what's left, / And flames in the fireplace / Flicker with Wordsworth. // As opium-sweat / Mats your hair / And stings your eyes, / You compose / Your "Kubla Khan," / Like a deaf Beethoven, / Like a night-crazed Mozart, / Like a rabid dog / Alone on a raft / At sea.
