Five Parrots and a Cat

Prior to bed
Maeve covers no cage
She binds the beak

of four of the five
that cruise all day
all lemon and lime

from drape to drape
while on the divan
Maeve weaves, Maeve sings

The fifth she thongs
to a porch rail
to screech

until morning
A week from now
Maeve will drown

the last Siamese
when unlike her brothers,
the cat won’t stop pacing



Puff Up, Inflate


One kind of pigeon,
one kind of snake,
as far as I know,
puff up, inflate.
There’s the bullfrog,
of course, and
peacocks have tails
so I tell my wife
what she already knows:
Once I become
whoever I am
then will
I love you.

 

Peace For Me Now

            after Baghdad

On the table by the window
balanced on its spine

this leaflet
butterfly open

and still as a
butterfly.

Peace for me now
zephyr through leaflet.

Peace for me soon
caribou and snow,

loping caribou
and caribou reclining.

 

No Hypocrisy, No Cant


The lioness is wont
to practice no

hypocrisy, no cant.
The lioness

will topple her objective,
grapple with it till

all palpitation
finally is still.

The lioness then laps,
completely dry,

what unavoidably
may spill.

 

Birds of Paradise

As you move toward the door
to open it so I may leave
I notice how your Levis cage

the anacondas of your thighs.
One more move like that, I shout,
and I’ll toss my briefcase to the floor

and bring you yipping to the couch
and kiss your breasts until they rise
like startled Birds of Paradise.