Bill Callahan
Universal Applicant
Without work's calving increments
Or love's coltish punch
What would I be?
An animalless isthmus beyond the sea
Bees only swarm when they're looking for a home
So I followed them
I found the bees nest in the buffalo's chest
And I drank their honey, that milk
I've seen this taste cased in almost every face
That's working to see it in all
And this kidnaps me
Tied up in a boat and kicked off to sea
In tight baby-binding technique
My arm chews through the swaddling slings
There's a flare gun in my hand
I point it straight, I point it high
And to the universe it applies
It lit things up in lavender
Where I'd been, was, might go
I saw the calf, I saw the bees
I saw the buffalo and the colt
Well, I'm sure they all laughed at me
At me solo in my boat
The flare burned and fell
The boat burned as well
Hm!
And the punk and the lunk and the drunk and the skunk
And the hunk and the monk in me all sunk