Paul Holman

VICINAL


I: FAUNUS / FELIX


My co-walker
traced the lemniscus
around two black-
bird eggs my daughter's cat
had left out-
side the back door.

I did not share
his delight in clouds
and unemphatic asexual
nudity but sank
down into the mud earth:
wet, humid, stagnant, occult.

Too wayward to heed
the slow thought of metals,
I adopted the death posture . . .