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”