Mark Young, Stricken By Hubris, Rollerskates in the Buffalo Herd While Tagging Butterflies

Watermelon Patch

In a morning

landscape in

which every

nutso bird in the

neighborhood

has come to-

gether to gather

in varietal

flocks & shout

down the other

flocks for im-

pinging upon

their territory,

the sound of

Roger Miller

proclaiming

loudly from the

house across

the road that

you can't

rollerskate in a

buffalo herd is

a reminder

that prejudice

is a standard

feature of the

landscape in

cowboy country

such as this

is hereabouts.

Transient amateurs

"We just

crank out the

data," said

the male kick-

boxer coming

out of a period

of secondary

hypogonadism

after his last

bout. "It's

the transient

amateurs, who

survey birds,

tag butterflies,

measure sunlight

& study solar

eclipses, that

are the true

artists of this

modern medium

of combat re-

placement."

Lares et Penates

Hubris strikes me down. Or,

more precisely, a cold; but I was

boasting only a few weeks ago

how the winters here were warm,

& now there are twenty degree

differentials between day &

night & I am dosed with

aspirin & vitamins. Unwilling

to write, poetry anyway, in case

I end up trolling down long

gloomy corridors of introspection

& self-distrust. Baroque replaced

by Berocca. Oh Marienbad, why

hast thou forsaken me? An

email from Jukka comes to the

rescue. We discuss detective stories.

Mark Young's most recent books are Bandicoot habitat & lithic typology, both from gradient books of Finland.  An e-book, The Holy Sonnets unDonne has just come out from Red Ceilings Press, & another e-book, For the Witches of Romania, is due out from Beard of Bees.