while u was away...
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tossed my black dromedary
in the grass by the ex-fire
nothing food or scent in tent
i only sleep here -- eat there
gone for the day i kayak away.
return -- late afternoon -- pull the gray boat up
unsnap shed the orange vest put down my blue oar
carefully like a gunbelt -- and:
dusty paw print 3-inches on the dromedary
dusty smudge on the hard black plastic top
it's enough of a bitch to unscrew
with opposable thumbs...
a quick scouting of the hood
deliberately noisy
a quarter mile inland on a trail of all things --
mass of black scat with berry seeds
not deer (pellets) not coyote (smooth brown)
nothing shits so voluptuously generously
still warm. animal gone
trawling in the lake en route or already
in port portly -- and rolling out.
feasting or fasting? it's damn dry.
Marek Lugowski
15 September 1997
Chicago, Illinois
