.........The Poetry Of.
.............................................. Keir Delaney
......
.........
................ Sawdust
.............
............. Around my father's house sat
............. sawdust-stuffed, a fox and owls
............. glassy-eyed and stiff
............. in the perfect comportment
............. that old man
............. demanded. Yes, sir, no, sir, have you any
............. wool, sir, none upstairs in noggin full of sawdust
............. hymns,
............. cars with fins from
............. back when chrome shine
............. showed a man had polish
.............
............. back before my great depression at his demise. He left me sawdust
............. leaking from my chest, a stuffed son, hollow as those years.
............. Odd to find you have no past
.............
............. that wasn't his; that you were his upholstery
............. to couch him in a front-faced window, to show the world
............. what a footstool he had raised and there he sat as smug
............. as one of his owls
.............
............. but at his end, what you remember
............. are the diapered sobs from a man too dry to cry.
.............
..............
..............
..............
.............. Slow
...............
.............. Never got the hang of
.............. jumping rope, things
.............. coming up fast
.............. have tripped me all my life; that's why, when you went past
.............. I caught your glimmer, I did, but at the time, you were
.............. on the arm of someone else and said
.............. as you slipped by, oh my
.............. but that one has such
.............. interesting eyes.
..............
..............
..............
..............
.............. Walrus
..............
.............. The zoo was hot and smelly. Kelly licked her
.............. lollipop, held my hand; a child's hand in an
.............. awkward paw. Uncle Keir, come here, I've found
.............. a silly one with whiskers. He makes an awful sound,
.............. he sounds a lot like you don't you think, Uncle Stinky?
.............. She giggled
.............. and skipped off to leave me with my mirror image
.............. groaning loud for fish. And she was right:
.............. my need's too loud
.............. and I suspect
.............. it has the ripe of animal-
..............
.............. like Liederkranz
.............. hidden in wet straw.
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