There Were Leeches

She says to walk with her and she’ll take me to them.

As we set out an animaloid—something that resembles a small and lithe hyena—runs circles around us.

She seems to know this beastie. It nips at her thigh. She admonishes it with a laugh—it knows her.

He’s ok, she says as it runs around us yipping.

We walk back to the site of the happening.

We find no one there—but there were leeches.

What I’m Reading:

“. . . I usually incorporate dreams into my poems rather than speculate on how dreaming works.”

— Alice Notley / New Weathers: Poetics from the Naropa Archive: Lectures from the Naropa Archive