Fostering

written spring 2005

Fostering

Taken from where they supplemented
‘stop barking dammit dog’
with ‘mercy oh mercy mighty’
and there might arise
kedgeree from the squeaking
saucepot -- our spaniel’s vacant belly
believed this as we believed
that uncle drilled auntie until
she poured forth cousin Lucy,
red lichen swabbed behind the medulla
oblongata, born scarcely distinguishable
from the Aleutian sandpiper save for
the umbilicus and her soft, featherless bottom.

Be focused now on water led past us
by the host population, wiseacres
sown with summer squash --
one of a dozen noted substitutions
for tangy oblong fruit. They ought to have
a duller word for that. Easy to see
the fulfillment of a brown pod tipped palish
and escaped caged birds flying toward
the sea, their beaks positioned for bathymetry
and meat in streaky sea waters. If we could
watch long enough for proof, the tongue
would freeze between predator and prey,
rattling the corner between two flashes.