Ralph Setian: [Rising like a spastic somnambulist]

Rising like a spastic somnambulist
I somehow manage to slip off
my underpants in the darkness,
tossing them into the corner...
And when I wake up in the morning
I am surprised and chargrined
to find a swarm of avid ants
voraciously lapping up
the still-moist, sticky semen.

Libreville: 18-IX-1973

Cahier noir by Ralph Setian, The Corybantic Press, Pasadena, 1975. Reprinted by permission of the author.