ARK AFT

[from ARK AFT]

 

Boar & Cow

Boar notices Noah’s wife’s name varies depending on source text. Haikal

introduced herself to me as Percoba, says Cow, yet Vesta to Boar. You

think Emzara’s trying not to be identified? You think Norea doesn’t know

who Tytea is? asks Boar. Both ideas can be true, says Cow, I believe she’s

twenty names deep so we remember her husband, who never talks to us.

 

Ferret & Hamster

Ferret posts I feel everything I ever fancy or require within reach.

Ferret’s alcoholism perturbs me, posts Hamster. I clench apexes,

zeniths, vertexes, apogees, pinnacles, Ferret re-posts. Hamster

re-posts Ferret intakes so much Stolichnaya vodka, her eyelids

Alice blue, after a gown Teddy Roosevelt’s daughter danced once.

 

Hedgehog & Horse

Hedgehog wakes ready for a four-hour day of listening and smelling.

Horse wakes not quite ready for a twenty-two hour day of monitoring.

Hedgehog is lactose intolerant. Horse cannot vomit. Hedgehog road-

fatality is highest in Ireland. Ancient Egypt and Late Middle Ages ate

Hedgehog. Horse subtracts and adds up to four. Horse hates violin.

 

Hyena & Kangaroo

Male nipples aren’t broken doorbells, chimes Hyena. Kangaroo

contrasts more to evolutionarily defunct switches, perhaps once

allowing the chest cavity to unfasten or lock. Was the body too

open, and needed shut? Hyena says surgeons removed mine.

After non-profit research, I firmly reckon they were sand dollars.

 

Tiger & Lion

Tiger asks Lion what type fire should we be, if we die wise?

Lion answers the class D metal kind. Rain upon us, we just

accelerate. Lion asks Tiger what type water should we be if

we die dim? Tiger answers I want us triple filtered, reverse

osmosis, sprayed, Delta Maidenhead ferns convert us to air.

 

Mouse & Skunk

Mouse accuses Skunk of eating the whole honeybee population

in Brattleboro, Vermont. Skunk’s burrow is busted. Millions

of bee wings coat the inner walls like high-quality Muscovite

windows. The tubular house smells embalmed. Mouse cracks

a few wings for ventilation. Fertile clay sand silt buries us all.