Monaco

Angelo
Monaco

2 poems

ANIMAL SOUP

The cat doctor, his eye bulging full of pin worms,
is dizzy
from carrying around a bandaged head.

Two red kittens are crossed out by a cloud of ether.
Two others
chase a green goo.

In the adjoining room,
a hippo with ink eyes welling mumbles into
her chest.

A lion, with red rubber gloves and galoshes, looks sour and
farts.
There is no clock in the room. He continues to mop.

In the hallway, a rooster shakes his head asleep.
Someone prints
POLTRI on his T-shirt. (Meds are prescribed.)

Tiny plastic doors swing closed.
It’s feeding time.

 

The
cat show

So much attention paid
to the fine dress of a
killer.
The hairs of his back

striped with a soft sheen.
The hairs of his head and paws
laced
with French ribbons.

He trails his movements
around Proust’s chair, speckled
like a
fresh-laid robin’s egg,

languorous, made mortal by appetite alone.
Flash bars
relumine
the cage in love’s persuasive twilight shimmer.

Everyone wants to pet him.
And for one shining
moment, the
killer in the cage

looks beautiful, and Death
like a son of heaven.

return
to SHAMPOO issue #1