leaves

leaves lush luscious leaves escarpment shade cool shade
a cool cloth on my face
my beard thick pelt
it hides this man a kookaburra
the ticks are seldom hungry feast
unlike me I wrote a nice book once i wrote all about
what occurred to me does not occur now i hide
my face in cool cool shade
and long leaves bitter green leaves
oh awful taste
they hide me wonderful i love the leaves these
hooves
arranged sardine tins as tines of sculpture
no message there
or did i read them emptyemptyempty!
sardine tins salty but not saltiest nor succulent
a man requires meat
i am a man
salty seadog of the sea and in the sea the unruly sea
oh horrible churning
poseidon's barrelbelly was it wooly his beard
and mine
everybody paddle green walls white walls
everybody in!
i don't play near the water because the bells screaming
birds bright birds floating wicked beaks waiting
bells crashing and clashing rocks wet and foamy
jagged rocks hunger i am
better in the trees
where leaves lovely leaves comfort me alone
in cool shade
a mercy merciful god i swear the fat monkeys were too fast
cursed monkeys
fat up in the branches among the leaves
i tried to catch them first but then i
exhausted measures
hate squabble upraised fist hate
i think sharks know what teeth
are for don't they eat fruit not so plentiful
somebloodysweetbreadslikemamanever
oy!
a boar roots what snout snuffles the goodgood dirt
hides me in the leaves
i watching swells of starving sea oh groaning
see see! great white fins riding and circling
sometimes fearsome
god loves me they always drift away if i
wait quietlike a mouse
he loves me but i must be quiet
i shall be quiet now so even god cannot find me
in the leaves

Copyright © 2001 Laird Barron