Lie Claim

As far as policies go,
Honesty was the one underwritten in blood.

After all the lies and liars,
both black and white,
I read-in plain ink
that the selfish gene-takes over
all of us.
Altruistic illusions of gene-rosity
have delusions of granduer, like Welcome signs
in kingdom come.

Lies lead to more lies like
mitochondria and kudzu.
Entanglement and estrangement are different versions
of the same (k)not.
As an only child with given chromosomes from unknown
x’s,
I feel more than a tad teal
in a pond full of swans.

They all lie and I recognize these
traits. We learn to float.

With two eyes, ten reasons,
heads or tails,
what was mine is yours,
two cents for a back scratch.

Do animals lie? I asked him just
yesterday. He says they just don’t
tell the whole truth.
I recall the fox, the raccoon and he smiles,
conceding
finally, my point-even
when there is nothing to gain.
There is always an angle he adds.

Nice girls never finish anything.

I wanted to get around to
telling the whole thing;

I smell it all over him, breath and body,
under all the covers
I see the disappointment in my daughters' eyes,
I should have been more-
I see my sons deflective shield,
I should have protected him more-
I see my mothers obsession with self,
always wanting more-
I see a step-and a push-
a trip, and fall.
I gather things, gingerly, trying to lose my place,
because these truths were below me now-
I find myself
dancing around the pyre of pants
like the moth
I am drawn to be.

Those genes look as if they were made for you,
he complimented me.
But honestly, he knows
they were handed down this way,
ripped with holes
and a little too long.



Painting by Edgar Degas [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

The New Zoo Crew

O the animals we saw
cracker shapes of travel
in a road trip box with wheels
ropes and bungees
tied down
on tall truck attachments
for handles
and hitches
on the highway
of the One
this time.

First,
the flocks
sheepishly stand
A herd of llamas
above
hovering hawks
kettles calling the cattle
black
lazing, grazing horses
switch tail
feathers fall
where the velvet
goldenrod
sheet of summer
drapes the hillside
The bovine still seeks green
where none can be seen

Away we arrive
and got gophers galore
nocturnal noshers
not worse than a snore
while raptors and rodents
feast and scream in the night
curfewless

We came and saw
and otter stay
but scheduled to play
somewhere else
today
we headed away
not on American safari
but saw a dazzle
of grazing zebra
galloping goats
and even I, excited
sea lions
everywhere we stare
flashless and mesmerized
by the negatives
microfiche of memory

Where wandering whales pass
dawdling deer
droop long necks
drinking mountain dew
squeaking squirrels scrape
little nails and big nuts
stashed for later
towed by trailer
in a wild week
at the new vacation station
with a view of the wild public
places, faces
on exhibit
also called a zoo-
have you been too?

Image credit: By Daderot (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons. San Simeon, California taken (@ Hearst Castle).