
Softcover Words
Read this “How to…” book
and communicate in softcover words
your hard cover deeds —
herding sheep and goats,
lying with packs of dogs,
theorizing yersinia pestis theorems,
and puzzling though a sheaf
of sanity assassins.
Read about the coughing
and sneezing of the infected.
Eat stands of banana, malanga, and yuca.
And make ten thousand marks
silvery and lustrous gray —
recounting the executions carried out
by children bored of kicking
old oil drums green
and rusted brown.

“Loving someone is like having a mental illness that’s not covered by health insurance…”
— Haruki Murakami / “On a Stone Pillow”