Suzy Zeus Gets Organized Read Online Free PDF Page A

TO
     
    AVOID VIOLENCE
     
    Suzy wants to take him sailing
    just to smack him with the boom.
    Suzy may just need to leave him
    drowning in his elbow room.
    Suzy wants to bean him with The
    Book of] by Harold Bloom.
    Suzy grants him room for elbows.
    Suzy grants him room for knees.
    Throw in houses while you're at it—
    swing sets, cars, a couple trees.
    He can find some other girlfriend.
    Let her search for birds and bees.
    Suzy has his number. Baby,
    Suzy has his full address.
    But how William thinks about her,
    Suzy can't begin to guess.
    Suzy, none too good at courting,
    only knows the full-court press.
    SUZY RETREATS
     
    Suzy went beyond Poughkeepsie—
    Suzy went to Holy Cross.
    Looked and listened for the Lord, 'cause
    Suzy knows the Lord's the boss.
    Suzy went to shake her innards,
    keep her soul from growing moss.
    People try to contact God there.
    People try the herbal teas.
    People listen to their heartbeats,
    to the wind through groves of trees.
    Sometimes in the silence they
    remember where they left their keys.
    Suzy gazed across the Hudson
    at a mansion on a bluff,
    trudged through trees and wet her knees—she
    had to put on all new stuff.
    Suzy's going to dance her praying,
    like King David, in the buff.
    Suzy met a handsome monk there.
    Suzy met an aging nun.
    Suzy asked the Holy Spirit—
    and the Father, and His Son—
    how to tell her own unconscious
    from the Transcendental One.
    When an insight comes to Suzy—
    what to wear, or what to do—
    could it be a gift from God, or
    is it her? (They're not all true.)
    Is the voice divine or human?
    Suzy Zeus has not a clue.
    Ancient Greeks, with nine to choose from,
    sipped their ouzo, heard their muse.
    Suzy wonders, was that real, or
    was it maybe just the booze?
    Suzy hears a thought. His roommate
    isn't just his roommate, Suze.

CHAPTER 7
Suzy in Hell
     

SUZY CONSIDERS THE SITUATION
     
    Suzy wants to kick his head in.
    Suzy wants to hear him scream.
    Suzy wants to lacerate him,
    whack him with an iron beam.
    Suzy's going to get revenge. New
    ways occur in every dream.
    Never last, or limp, or lazy,
    always first, and fast, and fun,
    now she's boiling, out for blood and
    tears and sweat and number one.
    Wishes she could get some bullets.
    Wishes that she had a gun.
    William stands beside his boyfriend.
    By his boyfriend will he stay.
    William stands to sing the hymns. He
    sits to listen, kneels to pray.
    How can William live without her?
    She can change him off of gay.
    At St. Jude's this balmy morning,
    William's got a front-row seat.
    Even way back by the organ
    Suzy Zeus can feel his heat.
    William's boyfriend looks like Ringo.
    William's boyfriend can't compete.
    Suzy Zeus is barely breathing,
    still as stonework, mad and mean.
    Suzy bows to sing the Sanctus.
    Suzy's face goes gray, then green.
    In her mind she tosses matches
    into pools of gasoline.
    William's boyfriend is a nebish.
    William's boyfriend is a gnome.
    Men can kiss in backstreet bars, but
    men can never make a home.
    William wants her. He's washed-up: a
    Greenwich Village Ethan Frome.
    SUZY CONSIDERS JUSTICE
     
    Suzy's served the homeless homefries,
    got them warm and got them fed.
    Suzy's volunteered with kids. A
    Softball hit her in the head.
    Suzy Zeus deserves attention.
    Knows she should go back to bed.
    Suzy Zeus is all for justice:
    "As ye sow, so shall ye reap."
    Hell was built for such as William—
    men who dare make Suzy weep.
    Suzy needs a team of lawyers.
    Suzy needs a night of sleep.
    Suzy's futon's full and fluffy.
    Suzy's nightie's just like silk.
    On the table by her bed, she's
    got a little book by "Rilke"—
    very deep, and good for sleep. She'll
    count some sheep or warm some milk.
    In the kitchen, whiskey sours,
    sour grapes, and sauerkraut.
    Suzy swimming, like a salmon,
    upstream, driving, leaping out.
    No, she knows she's hooked on William—
    more like some dumb rainbow trout.
    SUZY CONSIDERS MURDER
     
    Suzy's living in a fishbowl,
    in a fishbowl that's a