3.15.2008

Report On The President Of Mules

Territorial pig. What have I done to deserve this treatment? I often confuse him with shadows. Stop it with your nuzzling of the clover, your canoodling
with spider web women.
The bow tie ‘round your pink throat is a fake; you bought it at a costume shop.

Who do I commiserate with
except a green horsefly I find sitting on the beach? His legs are crossed. He speaks in a low voice, grave, an accent—

the ocean pulled my friends in, he says,
and he is mournful. Now it’s laughing at him in green; the mollusks all sing fight songs;
the white old hair of the sea spreads like lightning;
the yellow feet of seagulls pace the black sand and demand food.

In the distance are the mountains. It is raining again. I don’t have an answer for him.

All this man can worry about is trespassing, he says. God, he’s down.

He’s got a dummy on his knee—you know that, right?--who delivers his speeches for him, and in the end,

how can you care for a creature like that?

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