"YEAR OF THE PEACOCK, by Michael Loughran======I hated ideas.I wanted to eat beans,or be a bean..."

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YEAR OF THE PEACOCK, by Michael Loughran

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I hated ideas.

I wanted to eat beans,

or be a bean farmer, or be a farmer.

I was tired of myself.

Under the white noise of an airplane

bifurcating a cloud’s dumb glee,

I found some dirt to sit on.

April came, April went.

My kingdom abutted the kingdom of everything illicit.

At best, I saw one peacock.

”

- from Summer 2013 Pleiades. What immediately stands out to me with this poem is the peacock. And why shouldn’t it? Peacocks are pretty much the bold-faced type of the animal kingdom. But there’s only one peacock? And it’s the “Year of Peacocks”? What a horrible idea “Years of” are. If that was me, I think I’d hate ideas, too. Especially boring ones, like being a bean farmer. I’d be annoyed. I would wonder why the status of my kingdom leaves it only bordering the kingdom where all the peacocks are.