Thursday, November 18, 2010

mccxciii

A Beetle

Dusk saws the light off the mountain
with a smelly skunk.  Don’t need any
glasses (for eyes or for water).  The
earth rings damp with importance
like a monster sewn into the cover
of a chair that turns out to be a grey
rose.  The stuff of the gods.  The
stuff of deep-tissue massages.

It crawls into a little nook atop the
plywood cabinet.  I had just watched
a video of two guys playing with an
anteater.  They didn’t look particularly
respectful but they played respectfully.
It’s a world of mud out the door.  An
insect somehow manages.  Squeezes
into an empty drawer.

Bugs love sex.  I imagine prison
lonely.  This is harsh, awkward,
inadvertent, sweet?  Like the all-
knowing mirror centered over the
cabinet which tilts a little after a
pre-dawn temblor.  I sleep right
through it with a hard-on, some
dream of chasing vague laughter
and slow-motion lingerie in
mesmerizing color.

This vivid fantasy dissipates
and I awaken to the beetle
clawing sluggishly into its
plywood coffin.  A few books
and a journal have fallen to the
floor, sharp light from the window,
He says he won’t go to Venice...
it’s too romantic...it’ll make
him think of me and cry....