Roger Aplon

There's No Substitute

for the wish to speak as one, with snakes gliding between the date palms that

have always been a problem for the near-sighted & the rats too, from the

four corners bearing plague & missing teeth. A rabid dog died here. Yes. On

this very spot. He held on until the cops cut him to pieces & another time, I

must tell you, when no one came but the street filled with a thousand cheers

& blood ran & bones exploded & we’d watch the games kids invented inside

the bodies of the corpses & here was the beginning & the end & now we

watch TV with it’s make-believe & struggle to know the difference.