SCHEDULED EVENT

It is 5 a.m. /
“they arrive
through the skylight
partaking
of a similar light /
transparent
diffuse /
colloidal
yet discrete          like
jelly-fish.

I rise from the
bottom
of the pool.
Eager
to be friends, I
exclaim,
“glub glub,”
wave my
tentacles
at them.
All ten, twenty-six
of them
do not reply.   All
the faces
are mine: dog-fish,
cat-fish,
angel-fish, sharks,
whales,
porpoises, salt-sea
salmon.

All the mouths are
working
in rhythm: they keen
like wolves.
Silently. Close-open
close‑
open: hungry
hungry
what to do?

 

II

I feed them papers
my student’s
papers. “ESSAY FOR YOU.
BLUE-BOOK
FOR YOU.    TERM
PAPER FOR YOU
AND WATCH THE STAPLES.”

They like the food.
It is/
gratifying thus to see
them eat./

I run out of prose  /
give them
poems.  They quiver
and whimper
with delight.  Silently.
Emboldened,
I offer poems
with my teeth.
I lick their
tongues
tickle their gills.

We are friends: it
is warming
truly warming /
a fire
begins in each gut /

the papers
are burning / fire
shines
from every gut.

Oh warm: we dance
in the light /
the water boils /
fire
and warm /
we dance
friends
we dance

 

III

SONG: SOLO

 

Oh the merry conflagration!
See the pretty papers burn.
Hark!   The swift assimilation!
When is it to be my turn?

 

CHORUS: EN MASSE

 

Oh the very best fire
is a poem fire
a poem fire
a poem fire
Oh the very best fire
is a poem fire
Oh when
do we feed
the poet?

 

                     IV

They rise to the skylight
I TOO WISH TO RISE.

TAKE ME TOO.HERE FOR YOU
TOES & TENTACLES: EARS & EYES.

They turn into night.
BURN ME IN FLIGHT!

But not yet dead, I have nothing to give
them, nothing to give.