Sam Gardiner
Authority
When years confer authority one can impart
the knowledge that warthogs in amaranth
try not to think of humans, the ugliest things
they can think of. My little sister, for example,
while absentmindedly excavating the mucus
from alternate nostrils, could follow
the gelatinous spoor of a one-legged snail.
I tried to keep out of it, half-hiding half
a circumstantial doughnut behind my back,
as if my whole self had sinned, not just
my right hand. And not even my whole hand,
two fingers only, plus a thumb, of course.
The denials ran right along my arm, round
my shoulder, up my neck and into the mouth with
the fresh cream moustache, where they became air.
She claimed to be the discoverer of a snail
that hops. More likely the inventor, I declared
with the gravity my seniority conferred.
Page(s) 37
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