Some Poems

Regarding animals and insects

Edited and arranged by Robert Friedman

THE LONG HEAVY CHAIN
								     
	In East Attica, New York on a long heavy chain 
		tethered to
	a frayed nylon collar
		cutting into the soft down at his neck
	
	a basset hound with the long mournful face 
of H. P. Lovecraft
	has worn a grassless path around his dog house
inside concentric circles of Hell

---

	to which the long heavy chain
		has tethered him, though
	like the hero we all dream of becoming
		he has managed to climb up onto

the roof of the dog house
		where his mournful eyes beg us
	come close, closer—
		a hand on the bony forehead—

Just a touch.

VENOM: A Love Poem

Stepped into a nest of bees!—
	swarming up from the underbrush 
		of arid August
in a fiery lava

	enveloping her ankles, legs, knees
		as she staggers back astonished
			by multiple stings too rapid to grasp
				in disbelief stammering No!—

beginning to pant

	in sheer terror that
		she will be dead
			within minutes as 

airways shut
 	in her throat,  heart 
		racing & plunging
				heedless

To realize so profound a mistake
	is to realize it’s already too late
		for remorse, regret—
			only frantic flight

as warrior-bees
		pitiless as Kamizakees
			with but a single venom-sting in their artillery	
 	nonetheless pursue the enemy

clinging to her ankles, legs, knees
		fierce-stinging hate 
      		wild to ejaculate
   		
hot-acid venom

Fleeing for her life, it’s what we do
who
might imagine a more stoic strategy
	like that of Marcus Aurelius (for instance)
until

desperate not to die, we
		flee up stairs blindly 

hoping
to outrun warrior-bees
with their single, singular stings 

for which (unlike
		you & I)
			they are willing to die

				
Trembling fingers discover 
inside shoes & socks, mashed
			bees still twitching with life

& scattered on the floor of the house 
			dying bees of singular beauty

	So many!  So far
		from the hive grim in pursuit


she must envy, for nothing
			in her solitary life is worth

to her the sacrifice of that life
		like the bees’ sacrifice
	for the hive-life
				that will outlive them

& forget them

Overnight feet, ankles, legs, knees swell
	to twice their normal size 
thrumming with pain
		somewhere beyond the register
						of pain


despite home-remedies: ice, baking-soda paste,
		antihistamine & steroid pack,
			Tylenol, Percodon  
     skin tight to bursting
tumescent with bee venom
scalding to the touch



		balls
			of her feet so swollen 
				she rolls on her weight giddy

as on miniature barrels
			careening drunken & balance askew
			as if her very vertebrae
					were in mutiny
					
in collusion with
the wingèd enemy 
borne broken now 
in her body 
				
infinitesimal as
DNA

---

TO AN AGED CAT DYING IN MY ARMS

All the solace I can offer,
now you are deaf, blind, trembling
and your small breath shuddering,
in my cradled arms not strong enough
to keep you.

Muffin, much beloved (August, 1978—September, 1991)

(“Tenderness,” 1996)

FISH

When you stand on the bank awash
in sun the fish dart slant-
wise through your upraised hand,

all gold, glinting, nerve ends
quicker than flesh so
be humble. Don’t even try
to change your life.

(“The Time Traveler,” 1989)

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