i understand you to death
enough
to inoculate
that raw
education
that supports itself on ignorance
in six bold moves
& the ruthlessness of freedom escapes from me
i am born every time the kernel is too hard to bite
and row row row out toward the shoals for garbage
in order to sing me dry anthems of first grade
yawp, yawp my old dead dogs return hungry
liver in the stream bead and frill to red foam
slippery salmon roe
and the dogs smashing flowers on the bank
biting with racing hearts the tug of water
waking up ageless, stinging
to ruin soil by walking on it
to be really sorry that it happened
my suggestion is impotent
to the very end