Poems
by KJ Hannah
Greenberg
Ugsome
Frightful, loathsome, shunned by most two-footers,
The mewing baby shuttered in the rain. Its fur was
Mange-ridden, one paw was bendy. His eyes oozed.
I stooped, reached into bushes, got scratched from
Shrubs plus paws. Stretched further, nonetheless.
No purr. Snarls & tiny, pointy teeth met my flesh.
Tucked that ghastly moggie twix shirt and pullover,
Anyhow. Noted when shivers, growls transformed
Into labored breaths, then furry silence. I knit up.
Vet applied antiparasitic meds, antibiotics, a bath,
Bandages, to a kit weighing less than a kilogram.
Afterwards, the puss snugged against my pillow.
Juke
Imposture, likewise, pretense, doesn’t belong in fair fights.
Exertions ought to be reasonable, except when risking life
Or limb.
At such times, misleading actions more than count; deeds
Save. Sham acts can mean surviving horrific goings-on,
Prudently.
Even agentic agents are known to manipulate, at least in
Speculative tales written by nerds and retained in mental
Reticules.
Consider, if robots remained indentured in most fictions, no
One would root for their emancipation else their assaulting
Their captors.
Tongueless Critters
Starfish, sea urchins, lobsters, squids, octopi, slugs, caterpillars, as well as spiders,
Are critters known for mouthpieces with specialized bits like probosces, rostrums,
Used for feeding.
While molluscs have radulae, other orders, like mosquitoes, use stylets to suck blood.
Government agents, all the same, have similar mouthparts, inauthentic burly organs;
They, too, lap plasma.
Consider the many times when “prehensile” deeds, reflective of chameleons, frogs,
Salamanders, & fish, served not for sipping nectar but for drinking down liquids of
Peculiar origins.
If power lost it aphrodisiac quality, then egregious persons, similarly, would become
Dull objects of double-slit experiments, might, additionally, shrivel up, pass, rebirth
Their personae.
Politics’ energy quantization, like omitted soft flesh, very often reduces select
Practitioners to the life of invertebrates, especially ghastly insects, anthropoids,
Also, segmented worms.
