american lions
as if on cue, the snow returns, and all the beulah in the world won't melt it.
slow week so far. aside from a few choice classroom follies and an interesting if not unexpected twist in CCT's own version of the XYZ affair, things are going about how you'd expect. indiana in three weeks. let's see some hustle.
i started this yesterday, and it may be the closest thing to a completed, or completable, poem that i've produced in the last three and a half years. in other words, be gentle...ish.
American Lions
There are no more American lions,
no more big cats of Tornado Alley,
no more Detroit cougars, no bearcats,
their having been ridden out on rails
knocked from the high branches, stabbed
by long knives, laughed at, ridiculed
made to drink hot blood, castrated
with big teeth, dismissed, scandalized,
misplaced at the end of the last age,
overcovered by the press, set upon
by pack hounds and wild dogs, taken
out of context, pressed into vinyl,
crumbled by advanced scrutiny, swept
underfoot, censored through smiles,
sainted under questionable pretenses,
carried out to sea, dropped in large pits,
forced out of high windows in the middle
of the night, dismantled, sold for scrap
or labor, kicked into the sand, beaten
raw by the last big tough, crashed in
planes into high peaks, abandoned
in wet alleys, left alone completely,
and who's left to drop a rose or two?
There are no more American lions.
slow week so far. aside from a few choice classroom follies and an interesting if not unexpected twist in CCT's own version of the XYZ affair, things are going about how you'd expect. indiana in three weeks. let's see some hustle.
i started this yesterday, and it may be the closest thing to a completed, or completable, poem that i've produced in the last three and a half years. in other words, be gentle...ish.
American Lions
There are no more American lions,
no more big cats of Tornado Alley,
no more Detroit cougars, no bearcats,
their having been ridden out on rails
knocked from the high branches, stabbed
by long knives, laughed at, ridiculed
made to drink hot blood, castrated
with big teeth, dismissed, scandalized,
misplaced at the end of the last age,
overcovered by the press, set upon
by pack hounds and wild dogs, taken
out of context, pressed into vinyl,
crumbled by advanced scrutiny, swept
underfoot, censored through smiles,
sainted under questionable pretenses,
carried out to sea, dropped in large pits,
forced out of high windows in the middle
of the night, dismantled, sold for scrap
or labor, kicked into the sand, beaten
raw by the last big tough, crashed in
planes into high peaks, abandoned
in wet alleys, left alone completely,
and who's left to drop a rose or two?
There are no more American lions.