THE MUSEYou owe me. Pay up. According to my accounts, you have...
CASUAL FRIENDSend lies to the people listed below....
THE AWARDS COMMITTEEThis is to notify you that--but what's the use?...
THE WISEThe world could fall to pieces with no notice....
UNCLE ALA chicken is a touchy creature....
THE OTHERSHere where we live the lines are down and the surprises build into snowbanks...
DANNYDusty Clinton Township kids making paper roosters and snowball...
SAMUEL RENSBERGER I am your grandfather's grandfather and through my wakeless sleep I dream...
OLD NEIGHBOREast across low muddy fields and behind the screening trees you can see...
THE WORM COUNCILWe call your attention to worms. Though sweeping ice age disaster...
THE HERONI flew in down by the round deep pond behind your house...
WITNESSI saw the largest moon ever rise huge bright yellow, sailing where it cared to...
THOSE COWS: THEIR DOUBLE LIFE
They come ambling around the shagbark stand,
up from the lower pasture and its smelly pond,
pretending random travel and no surprise
at anything: serene, duplicitous.
Heavy necks and rumps hung equally low,
they mime tame endurance of cold,
fake calm in blinding wind, weary ache
humble in their bellowing till after dark.
They hunch outside the window. Eyes
too deep for thought scorn what they see.
Cows come to the porch while we sleep,
flex massive lips around doorknobs,
heave their fat secret malice inside.
They shift chairs, shake the drawer with the knives,
crack the cellar door. Mornings, all adrowse,
things seem out of place to us.