Dogs Bake Homemade Rilke

DAWN WAND--new version
after “THE CAROUSEL” by Rilke
(thanks to Hugh Thomas)


o sugar fin
dad gun
my elephant

mist is the enemy of ditches
and semen
shatters in the drift

the best deer wail
in the haunted alleyways
and lungs, covered wagons
paint the unguarded pants
with their collared swords

I must hire the harem
in the midst of ditches
the boxer at the alley end
must hire me

vein rider
rioter
gentleman of inane ligaments

dawn wand
ear-eaten satchel
the bent spur of the drummer
claims hope is the dour mite
that halts heaven’s lenient hand

I deny recitation in the jungle
the blazing forest flickering
beneath the gun

*