the one nearest

the one nearest


something is up with my cat

my cat sits in quiet ponder for afternoons at a time

eyes fixed on emptiness

furry brow furrowed

with vexed thoughts

and venemous entreaties


has sworn-off personal grooming

eating, sleeping, hunting, playing

suddenly responds to the name I call him by

so that he can then transparently deny

intentionally overshoots the edge of his litter box

while laughing

before welling up


sees his own mortality

sees his own impotent lack of control

sees the randomness of this alien world

and his accidental bookmark in it


decides it’s folly in going to the vet

would rather pay a visit to the chemical shed

wants me to unlock the gun cabinet

lays all night at the foot of the bed

drinking Remy and glaring


something occurring, I think

my cat [is having an existential crisis]

and, I know

I am his convenience

oracle and spawn

oracle and spawn


swim fishies swim

swim for life, swim for love

upstream, where the river narrows

through the cold and vexing harrows

oracle and spawn, falcon and dove

swim fishies swim fishies swim


sybil and pythia descend from heaven

down the hill when sternly beckoned

not yet schooled in philosophy, philology

no letters acquired in transmutation

to merge, submerge, and re-emerge


As it has and as it will, past pretty pink nails

and pretty pink toes

unabated the river flows

innocence and waterfalls



instinct and spontaneous urges

a last romance, hormonal surges

on gravel beds, in snow melt rivers

muffled by the bubble and the trickle

innocence and innocents

salmon swimming, salmon thrusting

while their weary bodies rusting

be still he says, and they comply

in pleistocene valleys, fall leaves rustling,

there under the high bridge, reluctantly trusting

innocence and innocents and screams


swim fishies swim

swim fishies swim fishies swim

swim and swim and swim and swim and swim

and swim and swim.