4 The Sawhorse Wasn't There

So, the blithe bobcat, that night, respectfully anointed

an elevator shoe

despite likely annihilation in three minutes,
(and a haphazard burial with planted evidence);

the hammock under the comatose tiger,
the hammock of prickly nooses and purple garters,
rocking both ways over a jug of Corn Juice.


The tiger relatives talk of emollients for a well-lived life,
playing slap jack in the plaza parking lot
in laughably moth-liberal lighting...

the stakes an oval-backed cane chair
'Papa Locus' was sitting in,
a mound of fried starches interlaced
into a greasy pyramid,
and a camel lamp with wings.


Sawhorse was not there tonight
being called away on a repair.
And scissors trapped under upturned and sat-upon trash can
in full dark with shredded will.

All of the tiger's family, including 'Papa'
accomplices in extortion...
more patient than the buzzards
squatting on the masonry.


The bobcat put the anointed elevator shoes on
the one tiger's ears
the way he always liked to wear them.

White hairs, grey hairs
blowing in the hammock's little breeze.