from I’m a Cassowary You’re a Cassowary too

 

Our era meets
a pre-historic long
gone other

The Cassowary a prisoner
of that meeting

A silent film
in color

The Cassowary walks
towards the human

The human backs

away The Cassowary
continues to move
forward

towards the human
and the sea

Everyone

uses their camera

Flickering the Cassowary
bends to scratch
its blue neck stops

              Cassowary private
              with your low
              tones Secret

skull growth

Spiritually iridescent terror

What do you
look like you
look like nothing

Still they like
looking at you The
humans do In

what capacity

Prostrate throating
amphibian growls
for the watching

humans

I too look
and hear
Unable to stop
looking or
hearing I am
the bottom
of a low slung
feeling

That middle-of-the-night feeling
of needing

to climb into a cold body
of water The river

Cassowary glistens
on Watching

 

Gina Abelkop is the author of Darling Beastlettes (Apostrophe Books, 2012) and Trollops in Love (Dancing Girl Press, 2011). She lives in Athens, GA, where she also runs the feminist press Birds of Lace.

 

 

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