Basho's mind of Christ

it was that rainy morning
the trains oozed past like snails
clouds of shit stuck to their long heads
she said I think you should
go

talk
to this other woman
I said
you're on a martyrdom trip
sound like my mother
sound like chaffinches over
Dresden

should I light the fire
what other woman do

you mean
anyway
you know the one, she said
as the train blew a faceful
in the rain
the one that's always there
in your
mind of

Christ
the frogs around the green ponds outside the stations
thought Christ
fuck this

jumped

six days into the trip
we found them white-side up
legs wide apart
in our thick soup
like jokes

fat dead jokes

about Basho
n

.
.(Published in Ditch, 2007)