They Don't Kill You Because They're Hungry, They Kill You Because They're Full. Mark Bibbins

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      is like a version of polo with a headless goat

      instead of a ball

      Polo is what

      riding around on horses

      and using long mallets to knock an object into a goal

      on a playing field

      And you said oh how awful savage people poor goat

      dragging a headless goat carcass around

      and then of course here we like football

      !pigskin!

      and you said oh how awful savage people poor pig

Unity, Utility, Ubiquity

      if you’re going to carry your gorgeous head around

      in a sack

      let it be

      this beige plastic one

      wait, that’s no good, it even says as much

      on the bag

      right there

      next to the message

      about Jesus

      what we learn from this is

      FAITH FIRST

      SAFETY SECOND

      the bag washed up on the beach

      like some beautiful gift from an ocean that loves us back

      so I thought it fitting to recruit it

      what a load of damage these gulls love

      doing to loot we leave unattended

      as we work the water—

      good for them

      and their sideways eyes, I say—let’s run ads on bags

      for their avian religion

      that calls it kosher

      to disinter and circumcise

      Mormons with their beaks

      unless it’s rude to bring up faith again

      I’ll close this beach and start a cornfield

      then I’m going to burn

      down that cornfield

      and build a bank

      I can swim to save my own life at least

      then swim back

      to whatever’s left of you

Evacuate the Premise

      civilization on a string

      sounds more sinister than “the world”

      stuttering is kisscousin to an incantation

      one we shouted when we came to

      the creek and found it full of math

      but not so good for drinking

      esteemed accomplice

      much-lacked be-

      loved dearest

      choice I didn’t know I made

      favorite first and finally most

      vulnerable spot

      the trees release their latent fire at us

      in photos of lightning

      see

      it eats upward

      up

Pedagogy and Performance

      Whatever the lesson was, it wasn’t

      taking. We awaited the information

      in kind of a corporate way

      and I kept wanting to go up

      to the whiteboard and write

      FEMININE MARVELOUS AND TOUGH

      and ask, Is that what you’re trying

      to do.

      Sometimes it’s hard to figure

      out how to move. When cardinals

      move, they’re as imposing as cows.

      They pull pornography

      from abstraction.

      But let’s also look

      at us a few weeks ago: a scale

      model of Seattle with its gleaming

      library protruding like a jewel

      from a navel—

      this was our best

      self, not the contraption of drawers

      and cranks that made our work;

      not the surprisingly delicate bones

      of Boba Fett, painted the same

      colors as his armor; not the three

      towheaded delinquents who

      used the contraption in their

      performance, then went home

      after disparaging the audience

      and showered together; not the cast

      of my life filing into a wooden

      amphitheater as my favorite band

      started soundcheck in another

      country.

      How would I get there

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