i saw a cat crying
weeping into his bright pink paws.
and, as every human should, I went to him
"Oh Mr. Whiskers, why do you cry?"
he looked at me and said
"Why do the sparrows have wings?
for that makes them harder to catch"
"Why do the rats have noses?
by which they could smell me from afar."
"Why do the snakes live in burrows?
deeper than my paws can scratch."
"Why do the fishes swim so fast?
i can't even get a midnight snack"

I laughed "Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha"
like there was a ticklish feather on my belly.
"Oh Mr. Whiskers, why do you think you have claws?
why do you think you have those fangs?
why do you think you have that fur?
It is your life to hunt
and it is their life to run.
It is your life to leap
and it is their life to fall.
So don't be sad Mr. Whiskers
dry up your pretty paws.
The road ahead is full of scurrying things —
Let your claws do what they're made for.

when the rains come
tell them,
tell everyone,
to get an umbrella.
____

it's a field
a beautiful field.
green and green as far as the eyes can see.
It is quiet
and swaying,
and naked.
Wonderfully naked.

I am also naked.
and i can feel it
like worms, digging
within the hollows of my chest.
It is an uneasy feeling.
one that brings my knees to my chest
and binds it all with my arms.
It makes me want to eat myself
and swallow,
swallow till all that remains is teeth.

I am naked
but the grass I sit on is soft
and the sky has a mouth
that he uses to talk of storms.

I am naked
reciting the Psalms of David.
dwelling in the secret place of the Lord
abiding under the shadow of the Almighty.

A sin for a gram of salt.
2 sins for a cup of rice.
I stand with empty pockets
in a shop where all tongues lie,
in a shop where all hands strangle,
in a shop where lust fills eyes.

he melted the bar of gold
and poured it into a cast.
A cast in the shape of a heart.

I have sinned again
and all I have is gold.
Gold,
and no heart.

have you ever drank a river?
stretched your lips over it's banks
and ****** everything —
the fishes,
the canoes,
and the boots
that sunk 5 years ago.

I am so thirsty that if I could stretch my mouth
around this planet
and crunch the glaciers,
swallow the oceans,
and breathe in the clouds —

It would not still be enough.

But see what nature did.
It gave me a small mouth
and a mind that believes
that a cupful
is enough.

I've always known I am a beautiful person
that all I was doing was hiding behind a facade
of ugliness.

today, on my way to the market
I met a person I knew
but looking at his squinting eyes, I realized
that he didn't know me.
a handshake later
i laughed and he laughed
he joked about the price of the fishes
and I replied, saying "I could buy a fishing net
for half the price of that catfish".
and there in the market, in a barbershop
I cut my hair
down to the scalp
just like his.

coming back I met another person
her skin as fair as the insides of a bread
she joked about my almost bald head
and choking on laughter, I said
"bushy hair equals bushy nightmares".

But the most beautiful thing I did today?
*** sizzling
eyebrows sweating
tongue salivating
I cooked my favorite dish
served myself
and one of my friends
and we ate
facing the hot, afternoon sun.

Don't be like me
don't hide behind a facade.

a red rose in a field
red as a freshly painted barn
I see it, alone in that cornfield
like a lighthouse, standing, by the crashing sea.
the bees buzz around its crown
and the butterflies dance by the stalk
Oh what a sublime scene!
as simple as settling dust.

It grows here on its own
stretching its own root, finding its own waters
not like the vines that twist around the trees
but instead, it is almost its own sun
and almost its own earth
and as unbound as the river
flowing, past its own banks.

what a beautiful flower
what a beautiful dusk
a red rose
and a field of corn.