Modern Assembly
Man’s gift to himself —
Eliminate himself
Uncle
I see his face —
it can't be helped
because he sees every
face who sees his face
and this concerns him
the sexual predator
as he comes into the
restaurant and good-uncle-
like chats with the prettiest
girl at the cash register,
barely 15, willowy, and the
reason he is here, her face not
at all developed or trained —
she shows crushing boredom
overwhelming confusion
grimace with genuine sparkle
if given the chance, a breakthrough
smile —
which she allows the predator
sensing him as an uncle
and when she drops her eyes
and he lifts his, dripping
over all of her, a split second is
all, I can't tell you how much the
blade of a shadow makes me cold
I Saw Porcupine
I saw porcupine as soon as I pulled the truck into the meadow. There is nothing that moves on the earth like a porcupine. Imagine carrying a body of hollow pointed quills around everywhere all through your life. Porcupine stopped his ground when he saw the red truck. I got out and slowly walked to porcupine and porcupine reared up the quills and turned its back and slowly moved into the woods edge brush, then stopped and waited. Porcupine didn’t leave, and neither did I. We were five feet from one another. His chiseled full brown face and patient eyes studied all parts of what was around him. I knelt near him awhile and waited awhile with him, there was something that made us both cautious. The truck was off and way over there. The sky was blue, the foliage still green approaching fall. Two days later I would hike my morning path and nearing the meadow wonder what had happened to porcupine, and there he was in the sunshine and large leaf ginger plants munching at his breakfast. I sat down in the sun myself and watched awhile. It was the best way to be.
——————————
Bob Arnold
BEAUTIFUL DAYS
Longhouse, 2013
