Why would I abandon the hunger-suffering 

Vulture, spread-winged in the middle of the road

Eating a rabbit while it snows? Wouldn’t you

Want to touch, watch his comrades close down the sky

And, in a black circle, eat red on the white Earth?

And when the hiss of something slithers in—

Panic un-paused—wouldn’t you watch the circle 

Break into black leaves pulled from the earth and flung

Into the falling sky? Wouldn’t you want to be

A servant of this paradise, not a God

In front of a screen, naked, lonely, asking—

No more a God than the crown of vultures

Frightened by a hiss that was a tire deflating?

Why would you trade Paradise for an argument

                                                            About Paradise?

1

Outside, the thunder
Shakes the prison walls; inside
My heart shakes my ears.

2

(For Sonia)

Snow from the mountains
Of my heart instantly melts
In your warm Blackness.

3

Black men with Torches
Follow the bloody tracks of
The albino beast.

4

Gray jets drag white tails
Across blue skies; gray rats drag
Tails across black legs.