ear to the tracks
the throb of another ghost train
an answer

screaming
hissing

a pantomime snake
slithering along a trapeze
in a costume of the question

Sophia Loren

an invasion closing in with an army of
drowned sardines

it may go around
or its cargo could be small and not that
dangerous

but that risk is for the passing of a comet
a great injunction
or the birth of a new universe with more empty seats on its
buses

call it back
back to the canneries

tomorrow is a new day with moon beams and ships
bouncing with chances

but today is
today

and the snake has started drinking.