The Alligator to the Antelope

Come slow, come slow. Come over full and clumsy fat;
Have sweet cool shaded sleep aside the pewter calm.

Indulge the juicy edibles of paradise:
Rich multitude of berries, verdure sappy leaves.

Warm leaping days will lay in shifting bottom mud.
Firm flesh, hide, bones within these satiated bowels.

White shining rows of closely fitted ancient teeth
Condone this reverie of sick plump tender young.

Torn, seconds; hoofprints, ripples smooth, blue veiny smell.
Imagination struck and made the air to bleed.

Reprinted from Yemassee Spring/Summer, 1995.