An Act of Composites

Something said about the selfish quality of light.

Study our kidneys most animal. Also lichen,

child of algae and fungus, marginal and kind. Oh to be

primitive of throat like salmon, to open

our mouths and show pink all the way down. Edges

muddy, we become the commodity form’s new marrow.

I admit I am more guilt than pollen.

Mother the saying we will get paid and carry a mouth of figs.

Why these teeth? Why not, we ask,

breath full of incubation and other misfortune.

The time between exposure and development

spent learning to clean chicken liver.

Forget the bloat of yogurt after days of not

eating. Speech bubbles

sprout, petal, begin their clot as we shiver

new uses for water.

Residents in the Ward of If We Can’t Live as Human,

We’ll Live as Syllable. Join us

umbilical and diapered in celebration

of cruelty, of signs which don’t read

we buy horses. All

pharmacies smell the same.


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