the articles of herons.

is the H silent in heron?

could it be an heron instead?

are there infinite possibilities

for the articles of herons?

now, imagine with me please

a figure more elegant than a heron.

i saw one from my car today

gliding, gliding, flapping, gliding.

i'm sorry that i fail to come up with

seventeen ways of looking at a heron.

i tried to reach out it from my car window.

it is a broken window; i could not.

so i started speaking about herons

in my car, alone.

look at that heron!

what a nice heron.

heron's say what?

YOU! heron.

i counted dozens of ways

to say heron in regular conversation.

i do fancy a heron after lunch!

what say we heron out of here...

a heron is inherently poetic.

have you read the latest heron?

i pulled over to see it

still circling above, around, around.

it hovered above me with no consequence.

and i began to scream:

HERON ERON HERON

ERON HERON ERON

it responded to neither.

this heron had no meaning.

how awful a creature must be

if one must speak its name and never be heard.

-----------------------------------------------

i do really hate birds, though.

i have situated myself in the present and will not leave like a churchgoer waiting for bread

old woman in the car in front of me,

no one understands your vanity plates.

you will die soon.

and soon they will not matter.

i live with you.

when i came home today

you were made

of chalk

i could not understand.

you were dusty and white

i could

break

off

your

fingertips

and write all over the walls

how funny would it be to

snap !

your nose off

and make you a sphinx

not to mention my bowling average

would improve eightfold

by simply hugging you

i could hoooooooold and caressssss your cheek

but you would make my hands dry,

ostracized.

and i thought of our lives together then

how a simple rearrangement of atoms

made you so god damned tiring to be with.

ART! that is what i should make you

put you in the garden

watch the birds rest on you

however, the elements consume elements

and (you idiot) became one

i'll keep you in the bedroom then.

but then i thought

how awful the sex must be

with a man made of chalk!

i couldn't think of why you were chalk

i thought you had died

and

(in shock)

i didn't know what to do

or who to call

so i left you in the living room.

i went to work in the morning

hoping that you would

come back to life (like chalk does)

no longer elemental

soak up some water

AT LEAST BECOME CLAY!

but when i came home

you were still

white

and

brittle

and then i really could not understand

why you were made

of chalk.