The old man on the mule
Opens the worn saddle bags,
And takes out the papers.
From the outer world
The thoughts come stabbing,
To taunt, baffle, and stir me to revolt.
I beat against the sky,
Against the winds of the mountain,
But my cries, grown thin in all this space,
Are diluted with emptiness…
Like the air,
Thin and wide,
Touching everything,
Touching nothing.
THE VAMPIRE BAT
What was it that came out of the night?
What was it that went away in the night?
The little brown hen is huddled in the fence corner,
Eyes already glazing.
How should she know what came out of the night,
Or what was taken away in the night?
A shadow passed across the moon.
The wind rustled in the mango trees.
And now, in the morning,
The little brown hen is huddled in the fence corner,
Eyes already glazing;
Because a shadow passed across the moon,
And the wind rustled in the mango trees.
CONSERVATISM
The turkeys,
Like hoop-skirted old ladies
Out walking,
Display their solemn propriety.
A terrible force,
Hungry and destructive,
Emanates from their mistily blinking eyes.
LITTLE PIGS
Little tail quivering,
Wrinkled snout thrusting up the mud:
He will find God
If he keeps on like that.