Sand and Smoke

the delightful and habitual
go about like little ants
these systems architectural, static
...strange rooms in which to dance
constrained by these conventions
renders us imperceptible in our clothes
in a predicament, a suspension
with no wild places left to go



everything we loved was filthy
with the impurity of human touch
their greedy sweaty faces grinning
marring all beauty like a smudge
how could we be anything but a monster
in this cheap world of greed and lust?
And a nice spring cleaning is fabulous:
Even the pools of blood.




This cheap catharsis is a crypt or has a
life we cannot see
we'd rather build a house for bones
than chase nothing endlessly
we dance to songs of sea and earth
like birdsong: Not frippery.
artifice with no art in it?
Such artisans should be worm feed.




two by eight we navigate
these rolling bloody hills of hate
to spin a yarn we must gyrate
so this plate of slate we'll consecrate
between two ridges parallel and straight
a place to cremate and assassinate!
this is where we'll hibernate,
and rest before we exterminate.



we rest and wrap one tentacle
round our head to keep out light
a habit we developed in incarceration
as a monster—otherwise we'd fight
our fetal curl has rocked our world
as we grow ever-larger with spite
our symmetry has a heavy forward
and our gravity gives others flight



Some spend their lives lengthening
while we sing our same dull drone
aware of every stone thrown at us
... can't wait to return home
or to a labyrinthine ossuary
under the earth with all the bones
Sister Death is always with us,
without her we're alone



a sack of snakes is a mistake
let them out or meet a fate
cruel and wicked and agonized
maggots will eat your living eyes
centipedes large and unceasing chew
crawling in your skin they move
you'll be peeled, flesh torn and rent
that's what you get for bagging serpents!



this desert changes every day
shadows irregular and unclear
in this heat haze and smoke of burning trees
it's difficult to smell the fear
or any other warning sign
that we are drawing near
we'll play with our prey for hours and days
as a puma stalks a deer