Am I Confusing Angels with Salamanders, Part II

Angels have bright yellow eyes, stripes and cutaneous respiration

They hum like hang drums and slide over hunters’ boots

They snap-jaw tubifex worms; swim peacefully in creeks.

When violence seizes the Zeitgeist

They go underground to fortify their senses

Safe from skunks & badgers, they engage in ritual

A hang drum chorus

Interlaced paws

The Elder One, injured, regenerates her limb in a corner

Her angel sisters sing its growth.

Am I Confusing Angels with Salamanders, Part I

Angels are small and green and live in the sludge

If you pull one out, and it’s feisty, it will bite your finger.

You cannot breathe the same air as them, and they are meticulous about their fingernails.

In earlier days, they had people as slaves

But they get defensive if you bring this up

It was an era cloaked in shame.

Interests

The man I thought I was

Met the woman I thought I shouldn’t have

The two of them went on a date

Smoked weed

And talked about how deluded it was of me

To think I was the man I thought I was

(Really, he was his own person)

And how narrow-minded it was of me

To have connected the word ‘shouldn’t’

With such a lovely woman as her

For you see, they both had their own interests at heart.

save $$ on hard drives

did you know you can have your entire computer saved to a cow?

your data comes out the udders, only it's been magically transformed into a delicious, potable, creamy-white milk.

Past Life Regression

sitting down with a past life regression therapist

i learn that i was once a british orphan, scrubbing floors on my knees

i learn that i was once a chinese soldier, fighting for mao
i learn that i was once a very very very old woman in russia who didn't speak to anyone and survived only on rabbit meat and weak tea

Wolf Raised By People

Making her wear lady's gloves

Upon her wolfy paws

Always quick to mention

Her many wolfy flaws

She isn't good at tea time

She isn't good in school

She just curls up and goes to sleep

Her textbook's full of drool

"Sit straight! Don't slouch!

And comb your fur!

My goodness, how you shed!

And why's it always meat you want?

Not satisfied with bread?

How kind we were to take you in

And look how we're repaid...

You'll eat us out of house and home

Such sacrifice we've made!"

The she-wolf sighs; she tries and tries

It don't do any good

Instead of tea and school, she'd like to

Hunt deer in the wood

In her mind, she hears the phrases

That her benefactors said:

"If it weren't for us, by now

You'd be illiterate or dead!"

So she picks up her embroidery

And she fumbles with the thread

And makes up her mind to try again

To eat less meat, more bread.

Three Poems about the Eclipse

Eclipse, day. Eclipse, night.

Eclipse blurs boundaries between day and night.

Eclipse, hi. Eclipse, why.

I know something about your wily ways.

Eclipse, when. Eclipse, you.

You haven't had enough tomato sauce.

Eclipse, one. Eclipse, disaster.

Where did you put your clean knickers?

Eclipse, friends. Eclipse, not-friends.

The Great Betrayal.

Eclipse has many sides, for example

You could be a scientist and want the eclipse

to be for your experiments or

You could be a poet and want the eclipse

to give you a glimpse of cosmic beauty or

You could be a child with parents who neglect to buy you a pair of glasses and you burn holes through your retinas--yow!

When I went out to see the eclipse, it was cloudy and I saw only clouds

Other people: 'wow!' 'amazing!' 'totally worth it!' plus Instagram posts of them in their eclipse-glasses

pangs of wishing this cosmic line-up would align my mind with purpose--if only I had been there! but of course, if I had been there, it would have been a different me, there would have been a glitch in the web of all time, a pig staring at the web would have noticed the glitch and whined, all animals would suffer from an instant-knowing-they-were-about-to-be-killed-right-as-they-were-about-to-be-killed but wait, do they have that anyway?