Zoology

The rhino loves the camel as the camel is the color of the dying grass, the muddy stream / and the camel loves the turtle because its shell reflects a dulled sun & tarnished moon / and, O, how the turtle loves the bee / but the bee loves only the flower & its own making of honey. / In Houston, all we do is buy: the cast-iron dog who stops the door, / the plastic turtle our children flail about in. The man I love will have / the muzzle of a bear or else he will render his face in plaster, die before me. / The dog loves the moon for being homely & the widow / loves the flowers for having no earthly scent. They swim / like small fishes round the coffin. / The porcupine dreams of sleeping in the elephant’s ear, shielded from the thunder. / Saint Sebastian loved quills, hunted porcupines until he was one, made by arrows. / The painting made him feathered, but not hopeful, and the man I love / sank down before it. / He was fond of saying Time’s just that beast whose fur we cling to. / He was fond of the herds inside my body.