Natural Love

Great bursts of chemical oozings

slide through ventricles

and disperse,

unhinge my sternum

and part my lungs

so my heart can push

at the thin skin of my chest.

My cranium becomes elastic, inflates,

its crown swelling - 

a transparent formation of overhead eyestalks -

giving me dizzying heightened sight.

My brain swims in its extra space.

My eyeballs bob back

and bounce off my

frozen-taut tongue.

I hear each deafening slide of cloth,

each rock-grinding foot shuffle

and each cyclonic breath-breeze.

I can hear your hair growing.

I can smell your hair growing.

The veins of my limbs

sprout bristles like crystals,

that sting then leave a numb ache.

Arms weakly waver and sway,

palms glowing warm

emitting waves of wet essence,

while cool fingers wake into

novel functions as antennae,

extending to sense airborne clues,

seeking any molecule of you.

My feet have grown suction cups.

I'm vacuumed to the spot.

It is all so lovely. 

And how I long for more.

           © Laura Seale,  2019

Jellyfish, photo by CarbonNYC
from Wikimedia Commons

Our Saviors

Animals save the world.

Animals uphold the world.

We kill the world.

We weigh it down.

We, pleased with ourselves,

Condescend to be kind to our pets

Whose salubrious, acrobatic, untiring silliness

Wisens us, cheers the sacred stone called Earth

And makes heavy Death forgetful.

Yes, the gabby globe is supported

On the back of an unboastful undying tortoise.

The worthy tortoise is supported

On the patient but unslavish

Castle-like back of a long-tusked elephant.

The long-tusked elephant is supported

By a blue never-harpooned whale.

The whale is supported

By a scholarly dragon.

Supporting these heroes

Is an untagged but inexplicably dependable cat.

She knows naught about size and weight.

She is a student of sleep

And experiments with play.

These healthy animals enjoy gamma rays

But they are not fanatics.

This may or may not be in our favor.

© Stephen Margulies, 2014

Cats, tortoise, and sea creatures
Painting by Jan van Kessel, senior
from Wikimedia Commons