19. Michael Davidson, "Bad Modernism"

The epigraph is from Ashbery, and the poetic language is derived from Ashbery as well, though in a subdued, almost depressed mode. "I like these cream-filled versions / so unlike what we get at home." or "the smell you smell afar / is something boiling over." or "we only work / part time, the other part / we illustrate profound malaise." The poem successfully makes me want to go read some good modernism. 8.