Allison Titus
They are Taking the Animals Out of the Offices
one by one.
Taking away their badges.
Wiping their heart rates clean
from the monitors & cutting
all the wires.
& the animals fidget, trying out their legs
& the animals inhale exhale
testing out their rabbit lungs,
gather up their riot & tender & resign
the sick light
of their desk lamps,
tearing up their blotters.
They are done with this pitch
& toil;
done with this ache of industry begotten luckless,
fluorescent in the trenches --
the burrow & stink of it
the long & the short of it
the supply & demand of it
the patent applied for & pending of it
the blood & the bile & the skin & the milk of it
The animals are leaving
the offices one by
one
& they run
& they run
& they run
& they run
&
--
Allison Titus is the author of the poetry books Sum of Every Lost Ship (CSU) and The True Book of Animal Homes(forthcoming from Saturnalia), and the novel The Arsonist’s Song Has Nothing To Do With Fire (Etruscan). She teaches in the low-res MFA program at New England College.
Taking away their badges.
Wiping their heart rates clean
from the monitors & cutting
all the wires.
& the animals fidget, trying out their legs
& the animals inhale exhale
testing out their rabbit lungs,
gather up their riot & tender & resign
the sick light
of their desk lamps,
tearing up their blotters.
They are done with this pitch
& toil;
done with this ache of industry begotten luckless,
fluorescent in the trenches --
the burrow & stink of it
the long & the short of it
the supply & demand of it
the patent applied for & pending of it
the blood & the bile & the skin & the milk of it
The animals are leaving
the offices one by
one
& they run
& they run
& they run
& they run
&
--
Allison Titus is the author of the poetry books Sum of Every Lost Ship (CSU) and The True Book of Animal Homes(forthcoming from Saturnalia), and the novel The Arsonist’s Song Has Nothing To Do With Fire (Etruscan). She teaches in the low-res MFA program at New England College.