Assessing the Cat

whitewash days all bleached out
low by the sea in Puget Sound
that good old Ground Zero countdown town
Cold War memories and youthful scares
all obviously vaporware
oh if only it were so
but these monsters still remain
and their chains are rusting in the rain...



certain whiff in the rising heat
familiar scent, hearts skip a beat
flowers to eat with our wide mouths?
nay, a kind thought most profound!
perception is tuned to hear these pings:
Ur-reptilian radar for beauty in things


brows like a raven's parentheses
wide cheekbones bring us to our knees
oceans for eyes, gleaming like stars
makes our heart bleed like an abbatoir
a vision of eternity
in her arms we'd feel most free


We're going to write something simple
We're not going to write something grand
We're going to write a poem with no meaning
we hope it doesn't get slid of our hands


fierce otter grey and battered rest
sleep now, lick your wounds
we crawl out from beneath your hide
like eight wiggly creeping eels
we creep up to the handlebars
and steer out into the sea
silly sleeping otter
got on a tandem bike with we?
-An Octopus