we are all animals.

{while on the subject...re: yesterdays post}

WE ARE ALL ANIMALS.

Chockstones fall.
They get wedged between large rock formations,
In Utah canyons.

I know those canyons.
That endless stretch of red rock,
And the land that dries out the lingering shit.

I know waking in the dirt,
And seeing the full moon drop
As the sun comes up.
The horizon orange.

I know rising from the earth
On a small piece of grass in the dark,
And vomiting all night.

Losing myself in that trailer-park bathroom.
Falling to my knees on the lawn,
and looking up at the black sky.

I do not know
What it is to have your hand crushed
Against that wall, unable to move.

After six days of it,
You sever your arm at the wrist,
Thankful that you brought along the knife.

But I want to know what happened
To the hand that was left.
What ate that piece of rotten flesh?

Maggots? Birds?
Some kind of rat that lives out there?

I sit here looking at my extremities, and
I wonder about that one-armed man.

I figure he must have learned how
to do things with his left hand.

Indeed, we are all animals.

[October 8, 2004]

Posted by jeff pitcher at October 15, 2004 02:53 PM

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