ruination rumination

a ruminating marsupial? if so,

I guess I'd be a kangaroo, the cud soured

and pasted to the tongue, too little too much

to digest, a month's worth of food in a week,

nutritive prowess expired a year ago―

my tail is dragging, I'm too wobbly to hop!

marsupial rumination? what's it worth?

so much has grown wrong, our abysses lift up

to greet us with black yawns, treadmills at full stop:

my teeth are empty, don't expect me to speak―

“organism”, “mechanism”―they're distinct?

 =  =  =  =  =

(52)

a drunken reverie each and every day

though no season or year can stand still:

another moment, and you're under the dirt!

(never again any sunburn threat)

the bones of your body melt into earth,

the breath of your spirit ebbs into air:

there, even tongue, jaws, and teeth of steel

won't equip you to read Lao or Zhuang.