The Cow and the River
we wouldn’t actually lay our hands on the cow.
it was symbolic but i wasn’t going to do it anyway.
i was never sure if cows could carry our sins
and even if they could i couldn’t know how a cow
carrying all that sin would be received in whatever
world it ended up in. i saw my friend and we spoke
but i couldn’t hear what they were saying because
of the singing as we all followed the cow to the river.
we’ve always been close. always liked asking
each other questions that were hard to answer. like
what would you choose as your last meal. or how come
a scapegoat isn’t actually a goat but a cow
or sometimes a person. i wasn’t near enough to the river
to hear the cow itself but i could tell when it happened
because of the noise from everyone else.
Genesis
hello hello to i’m only taking what was mine already
bossman. i’m gonna look right at the camera when i take
what was mine to have and sell if i need to. hello hello
to he gave me a key to the city i’ve just gone and made
copies given one to my bredrin his bredrin. in the beginning
he said man in my likeness in my image man like me. like me
you know. he said in the name of my man and my man
let man dry hump on the riverbed if he’s got nowhere else
to go and the mood is agreeable. don’t worry we’ll change
the sheets when we’re done we’ll air out the firmament.
he said give man sea and sky so if every cloud has a silver
chain around its neck we’ll be having that too. he said let man
fix the sun to his incisors if it shines right. hello hello
to rah. all of this for man. hello to show me.
The Drums Speak of the Boy
the place the child was found
is where the gods stay
we don’t fish or gather there
we are all very shocked
boys they are stubborn
it is not clear how the child
got past the authorities
a deer that is bound to die
will mistake a warning for a chorus
the boy was smart
and that is why it took us
so long to find him
a water insect that dances
on the surface surely has its
musicians located on the river bed
there will be nothing that can
tell a large group of people
what do with their necks in this song
The Boy and the River
here once was a boy in the city who was both a boy and a river. rather
because of the nature of the river all it took was for the boy to drop into
it and this one drop would mean the river was now a boy. the river had of
course known many people some of them surely boys but it had learned
not to get too attached. so when one day the river found itself by the boy
neither expected much. the boy shocked to see what could so easily
be himself in the river bent to greet it. the river who had forgotten what
it was like to be looked at stepped towards the boy and it was good.
the boy the river. their body passing through the city
under bridges. jumping over barriers.