Just hauling all these corpses into us

well anyway I used to think that looking
was quite a lot like fucking like

oh, I didn’t mind things drilled through to my optic nerve
with fingernails to spurt but the birds are now out here

and tomorrow is the hottest day ever they’re saying
and they have those little quick hollow bodies don’t they,

flying unknowing they’re dead and turning eyes necrophile

like the trees do, the streams and whales &c.
in the water glittering more salinated
under maybe one-to-seven specific men with knives
unseen but still with knives and still living killing

the little quick hollow bodies we’re sharing and binding
one day together in toothed or eyed response

drawing new things to penetrate our jellies I guess, I hope

Patrick Ball is a writer in Sheffield, UK, and before that he did some philosophy in Philadelphia, PA.

bird