One Number Five

***for one***

I can show you animal grace

sour sodding grapes indeed

I’ll move like a careless

fingerling

one big muscle touching

things with consideration

they will move

or stay still

or move for you

what great tennis

we could play

then we can paint

words with the bodily red

well-bit lip

I’ll make it my business

to know your tricks

and seams

to know your beveled

decoration

your original

color

we can put that

new piece of plastic

to use

and go for

drives through

the trees

and then

we can stop by the

road and I can

describe the shade for you

I can give and take

mute as a machine

and raving like

perfectly flexing spider

or sparrow

like the one behind

your ear

I want to lay and stare

at that bird

for a while

while you describe

it’s

fire for me

oh and

it will fire

like a new paint job

wet in the sunlight

we’ll drive back

into the valley

with nubbly

sunset light backlighting

the bird

and our butter mushroom

backs

into the valley

down the middle like

a water sword

dripping past dry

people doing with metal

in their pits

pistons

leading to the fence I

built or

maybe to quiet

and unnoticed aftershocks

becoming bigger and

bigger until aftershock is a word

that will be used to describe what

happens after this shock these teeth

tear and grip nicely this 95 mph hollow

chest this hot gravel that spits

up beneath our car and sprays behind

us in a red colored shade of sweet jesus

not knowing and not caring or thinking

or looking just metal plastic oil pistons

nerves purring blood-fed shifts of skin

and sinew and bone wrapped together

SOME SORT OF ONOMATOPOEIA

then we smoke and

I stare at the sparrow