Paper cutouts, opening credits
the indie film of my childhood,
Babar on paper waves, hands in pocket,
Babar visits where the wild things are
Gray-brown sweet potato skin,
walking trees, ears buoyant
as butterfly wings alien headcases
accentuate elephant cognition;
catch the taxonomist’s imagination
Under the preponderance of labrador
bonehead browline – alarmed lady eyes
in tree knots and whirls
Old women of the sepia planet
the knees and belly of the mother goddess
unexpected grossness of that mouth lip
labia jutting over the
blue water of murmuring shadow
When tusked, beast
the dark forest of the cerebellum
loping orchestration walking mud,
painterly pointing trunk, brain
for their own traditions,
not for us! Brain
for their own things
~ Lady