Frederick Seidel, 'American'

'The most frightening American poet ever - phallus-man, hangman of political barbarism - Seidel is the poet the twentieth century deserved,' zei The Boston Review over hem. Uit Frederick Seidel, Poems 1959-2009: 'American'

My face had been sliced off
And lay there on the ground like a washcloth
...

With my testicles and penis
Next to it.

The car had Wyoming plates.
I'd been to Colorado but not Wyoming
Which I gather is beautiful.
The other one I hadn't seen was Utah.

Someone had carefully cut under it and lifted it off,
I suppose to obliterate the identity,
Except had left it out in the open.
It looked like a latex glove but also someone's face.

She told me she had always loved me.
I was the happy ending of a fairy tale.
She would recognize my penis anywhere,
Even on the ground.