not lazy hides inside lazy
lazy is an away
genome is an away
in private places
away masquerades
as abandoned and unbidden
giddiness appended to why like a gingham sticker
then a codicil of why
twice in trains and the corner shop with pancakes
tucked into the bathroom mirror
I loved sucking on your moraine said the flea
whose catalyst hides burst reticulations
our title no cyst diminishing this lay
Wayne Koestenbaum—poet, critic, novelist, artist, filmmaker, performer—has published 24 books, including Stubble Archipelago, Ultramarine, The Cheerful Scapegoat, Figure It Out, Camp Marmalade, My 1980s & Other Essays, The Anatomy of Harpo Marx, Humiliation, Hotel Theory, Circus, Andy Warhol, Jackie Under My Skin, and The Queen’s Throat (nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award). His newest book, a novel, My Lover, the Rabbi, was published by FSG in March 2026. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship in poetry, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, and a Whiting Award. He is a Distinguished Professor of English, French, and Comparative Literature at the City University of New York Graduate Center.
