can't sleep in warm water

if frogs don't sleep

how do they stay so green

against the odds of mud and snakes

of shivering respite

beneath a stone

in a gutter

in the palm of a toddler

whose curiosity

might be a sentence

to the bucket

or a flush in the toilet

depending on the cut of the moon

the humidity in the catskills

or the apparition of mercy

how she greeks you through the tall grass

an odyssey of deer ticks

a seduction of gopher holes

would you know another pond

its lattice of scum

and would it soothe you

in the half of your brain safe enough to dream 

or would it like the warts on my pillow

leave you wanting


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