quail bones and clamshells

6/24/18 10:21AM

i am an absurd conundrum

for all but a few

and to them

i am sure i am no less perplexing

even with structure

the moon shines brightly and sets

i watch it like i 

watched the sun

go down over those 

smiling sifter sisters i met on the beach

looking for beach glass i told them

i would come and smash bottles so they would find their treasure

and then i drove away

the swallow i saw today

flew so damn close to the ground

and i almost thought it would crash

until it swooped upwards to a gale

and broke its wings on a truck

or maybe it was a seagull

fucking rats, they are

all of my fellow groundskeepers

smoke pot and languish

instead of soberly waste

like i do

it’s easy in the company

of spinsters stuck in the jankest part of buffalo’s swamps

but there’s five miles of trails in back

where i’m sure someone died to

a stone knife

some time ago

i fell in love with chestnut eyes

in tight pants and a red jacket

pull me off the goddamn trailer

like you do those plants that

people just drag out of the lake

my shift starts when she begins

and i spend the rest of the day

caring about the environment

one day quail bones

and clamshells will be enough

to keep my digestion right

and my heart from burning