Ash Smith for Paul Klinger

eyelashleye:

for paul klinger — on the occasion of his being born

Lagarto . the outer skin .  in the sunlight a mottled red  . like wrapped in a casket of embers . pitched in the mind’s eye a light like mesmerization  . cascade of birds in the background foreground .  waterwound so just the eyes seem to appear from the larger pool  .  “These strange states probably originated as a defense.” and the slang slipped into “non-playing devotee of swing music”  .  whose cousins sleep with birds on their teeth .  who crack a crystal ash in the night of our watching .  who comes in the mossheat to find  .  “4. Lightly stroke the lizard’s belly.”   who usurp us by a more ancient body  .  “See your rivers stirring with musk alligators / And sea cows with mirage eyes.” (Léopold Sédar Senghor)  .  see the body of the creature outlasts our last ink  .  see teeth sea teeth teamed  in swamp states brighter .  thus in a net to hold the rain . split fence splayed shorline of the water .  thus the tall jaw closed in tighter .  or conversely, all arose together  .