Jonah’s Feast
a whale ate me
it’s hard to describe
the boredom of trimming whale flesh
from inside the beast to survive
and gagging down the slimy scrapings
it starts hideous yet
becomes normal till when you nearly break
through and discover blubber is
an amazing treat
If somehow you puncture
the skin over the blubber
the whole beast sinks as water pours in
and the abscess you are becomes
the knife in the gullet that kills you
a thousand meters under the sea
***
Grinding Unreason
grass grows grey chanting its happy dirge
seeking blue roots in gamboling underworld
where everyone rolls bones, seeking snake eyes
practicing tricks flipping lucky 7’s
In that home we unwind reasons to extend
our years to sob our purposes into pillows
granting dreams batwings to echolocate fears
gnashing tiny teeth while gizzard stones chew
anxieties transgressing foundations
upon which houses ferment in the hope
of tomorrow while their green shades blind ears
to effervescent notions birds tweeted
intertoned by magma glowering sky
desperate
to rest to recover to release
the firmament of roses
to gift their thorns
so dragons may again prognosticate
the old world into a new vision
Andrew Weatherly lives in Asheville, North Carolina where he hears inspiration from dying trees, Hawaiian shirts, fires, and other poets. He is blessed to teach kids to think for themselves, dance in the streets, and slip off on pilgrimages to sacred mountains.
