GUARDIAN

You're too complicated,
you're a comic book hero left
on the rack, an unrecognized
species, sui generis, a fish dragged
up from the bottom of the ocean,
and let go, dragged up, and let go
I know lots of people like you.
One minute, you lose your color,
the next, your space. One day,
your eyes change shape, the next,
your legs heave different weights-
left leg heavy, right leg heavier.
Left leg, right leg-slower, then
slower, and when you stop,
the first word out of your mouth
explodes with clouds of exotic
birds flying this way and that.

Color and motion, water and land,
what do they amount to? The gloss
of family photographs, the light
of shoes, lots of know-how.
Talent has nothing to do with it.
Talent has everything to do with it.
The choice is yours, that's all
I know, but it's not all I need
to know, it never is.You punch-
line, you passing fancy, you
emissary of parrots, you cloud
Lead floats in your atmosphere,
gold and silver dissolve on the tip
of your tongue. You're a crowd
waiting to happen, a letdown
ripe with belly laughs and flat beer.
That's ok. Some angels have wings,
you have legs and weight and
expensive breath. You are what
you are. You are what you are not. If
you were real, you'd be something.