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A
BESTIARY
To Be
Read as Rock Decays
Slowly
The Armadillo
wants to elope
with his pasteurized beauty
but her legs
are too long and her eyes
gallop like wild bees
from dangerous flower to dumpster
The Bat
counts on the thin branches
to whistle just before
a cloud of bugs drops in
like bored teenagers
looking for that boy who said
he was gonna take you down
The Butterfly
corrects his flight
every two seconds
a childless old man
whose irregular embarassments
tangle his days
on this town's imaginary loom
The Camel
can't decide which
will ride on the first hump
the angel of lonely confusion
has breath as cruel as Asia
the angel of broken promises
has stories sad as glass
The Collie
pretended to be the last
of a long and fabled line
of tin scrap peddlers
who littered the countryside
with cries of Scrap Tin
Scrap Tin Peerless Bits of Tin
The Elephant
has arranged the days carefully
to follow each other
patiently like punctuation
they're bound in friendship
from Miami to Carmel
on that dark and stormy coast
The Fish
you ate swims now
in ever smaller pieces
through you to your blood
towards a dark room
where silver hooks
wait like dangerous thoughts
The Fly
manufactures helium beneath
its wings as you or I
might make arrangements
to meet next weekend
under the large green umbrella
of desire
The Hog
became a commodity
when history's hot belly
called for service
and men with tuberous feet
turned to face
the altar light of capital
The Horse
sneaks out at night for drinks
with sympathetic turtles
down by the moonlit pond
the conversation turns
to the sniping cuts of cattle
the subtle crimes of geese
The Kitten
has pale memories of Alaska -
that journey over the ice
from Siberia -
but believes
the lost plains of old Europe
still echo papa's long-tooth snarl
The Octopus
will never understand
how the sky doubles over
in its journey around the sun
clutching its stomach
with eight blue fingers
dreaming of an ocean voyage
The Rabbit
demonstrating sexual
consequences deposits
her most recent ones
down a five-foot
drainage pipe she possibly
mistook for home
The Sheep
stand around like
bad arguments so cute
and intractable
if you thrust your face
into their thick white wool
you will grow wise
The Snake
counts one on the tail
one sun making warm
one stone one idea
a singular opportunity
to approach from the rear
one and one and one green frog
The Sparrow
had two songs that knocked
out everyone except
three fat guys over by the pinball
but one of them turned
for a second thinking
he'd been here before
The Turtle
is indifferent
to the glass box the wilted lettuce
his dignity
is a granite outcrop
blind and deaf
to the human earth
The Zebra
doesn't want the world
when you're done
with it
he wants the striped
music of raw wind
the corrugated dance of lion grass
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