Cockroach Anthem, image by Irene Koronas
[the
marsh inside became willow]
and
spilled
from my mouth
in a sweep
now the tree
that grows
between my
teeth
is an
infinitely splitting atom
with delusions of grandeur
[atom
and weave]
were
banished
from my bowels
in the year of the squirrels
god is a walnut
that I stowed away
for the winter
but the shell
would never crack
now this tree in my mouth
is pulsing
through me
trying to create its adam
its skip hop and believe
[in my
innerdrum: a chlorine blight]
from you I learned a
lean body
a traipse
of longing across the yard
when
seashells stormed
overhead
without any
moisture:
a sponge
of darkness swathing the sky
[a
chainwinked spider]
in
the swipe of
glittering
slips
the
wire
onto
my body
as
I
sling
the
cockroach anthem
[my body
a weight]
tied to
a neck
who
tried
to feed
itself
by the
stars
a
bizarre
replication of
that time you panicked
me into
lopping limbs
you
remember:
that
cattleshocked
shadowfleshed
humpbacked
showdown
of
clear white ice
only to
watch bones
sharpen
like swordfish
slide
out of life on the ten thousand smooth stones
I have
swallowed
to
survive
sinking
into
oblivion
squatting
tightly
to the
beat
of the
bottom of my nightmares
where
the seedy sallow stench of bodies smokes
—Erik-John
Fuhrer
