trout

After Arp: 1

Richard von Sturmer

Mushrooms

The flat, black mushrooms
grow luxurious green hair.
Green hair edged
with a band of white.
Green hair as luminous
as underwater plants.
Green hair that can be fashioned
into horsehair whisks.

The flat, black mushrooms
exhale clusters of stars.
They live in a section of the forest
where no flies can settle.

The Great Slug

The great slug rides his bicycle.
His baggy pants can barely contain
his baggy pants.
He leaves behind
a trail of gray foam.

The great slug is a connoisseur
of sofas and lazy boy recliners.
He merely rides his bicycle
to rid himself
of certain metallic parasites
which inhabit the deeper recesses
of his sagging flesh.

If only the great slug
were a hermaphrodite.
But his penis
remains firmly fixed
in the centre of his forehead.

The slug and I have a long history
of altercations.
He's nothing but an impostor,
a provocateur,
a guzzler of kerosene.
Someday we'll settle old scores.
Someday we'll slug it out.

The Lozenge Box

fire of flamingos
smoke of bats
ash of ants

On one bleak
mid-winter's day
you offered me
the key to the lozenge box
and ever since then
multicoloured pastilles
continue to tumble out.

a flywheel
a watering can
Fidel Castro's
fountain pen

Multicoloured pastilles
continue to tumble out.