[feline]
Rose Hunter
and you know how i pride myself i say
i have no respect for those with weak stomachs or
who shield their eyes or spare them what
can we do with spared eyes anyway
keep them in a box or a jar or little plastic
bag desechables instead let’s line up
and see with the eyes we have unspared
the smoking lady would not come to the wake
it’s too sad she said yeah it’s sad
i said it’s death lady you bet it’s sad
and knew who that sounded like got dead
ain’t gonna get undead goddamn it
somebody lost a parrot can people stop
losing pets for a week or thereabouts
returning from chacala the inca lion look!
striped pickup and behind the bars
i saw the caramel mane and almond
and yellow eyes flick past
they were nothing like his anymore you
were already dead when that died finally
what fantasies can be sustained after those pictures
you see i am so much fiercer and stronger
i looked into that lion eye
and saw it was nothing like you
ROSE HUNTER is the author of You As Poetry (Texture Press), [four paths] (Texture Press), and to the river (Artistically Declined Press). She lives in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and tweets, @roseh400.