3 poems from ‘Prey’

by Nicole Mauro

 

 

Buzzard

Crane

Falcon

 


 

Buzzard

 

I.

 

A tongue–the buzzard above

without sky there is no reference to
the montrously sized

reference–to be for example
exampleless

I–fragility

“That possibility is”

The sound of my head unpillowing

 

II.  

 

A human slept–“of no consequence or reference”

the buzzard above–in sympathy of prey

I was monstrously sized

wept–there is no concrete example

for that bird’s offspring, in nest

“That possibility is”–that possibility is
not even death

 

III.

 

Monstrously sized–fragility

consequentially referenced

A tongue moves a thought 
away from a head

My prey have all been sympathized–the buzzard above

wept

feathers of the pillow I lie on–her offspring in nest

 


 

Crane

 

I.

 

Indiscriminate tenderness–violent is the quest
for ground by the grasses

On a Eurasian plant–several hundred
arbitrary thoraxes

Praying mantises–(I miniaturized)

 fucked–became 

“As though condition
was the only distinction between fiction and rage”

a cold screw I dropped into
the snowmelt      

the nostrils(of origami   
the eyescranes)

“If only I had said” — I have no holes,
like its eggs

 

II.

 

Into the rain–I

Bird(O lushness, O sage)

Raping flowers, in the name of subjective
sexual discourse

Several hundred retinas were interrupted from enjoying their newspapers–simply because
they are flowers

“Everyone succumbs occasionally”–Farmhands

Over the Earth’s
soft ground

(insert finger into flap A)–into the acres

sprout

 

III.

 

Succumbed–I

A soft Earth

Despite the freeze of polarity—the distinguishing characteristic
of those in the possession of controlling
influence

Geomorphed clitorises out of 
Antarctic Floridas–eggs from mossy crotches of humus and disintegrated rock  

“Why a man could split himself in a mound
of dirt”

Everyone occasionally–Over

-flowered(One smelt the Rape)

In the hay. In the alfalfa.

 


 

Falcon

 

I.

 

Bob gave the doll to Sue–two children, under sheets

a bouquet of genitalia

Sue gave the doll to Bob–alive
in the bladelike heat

A man, out the window

“Reflecting a discrepant likeness”–by olfactory means

Felt sap firm the middles
of trees

(naturally
this wasn’t
the ordinary gravity)

(a man, out the
window, two
children under sheets)

He perceived Eucalyptus

like a newborn unable to
grabbing onto its leaves

 

II.

 

Green mountains–Bob and Sue

The alcohol–the alcohol

of yellow loss exudes

temporality begs reflection–anytime

the precision of sunlight(replicas of people)
is absolute

Every window–“that explains everything”

The same difficulties

“who gave the doll to whom”–discrepancy

 

III.

 

Temporal sunlight–begging

anytime a child(a doll found akimbo
anytime whomis a child assumed)

The same difficulties–Bob and Sue

Under sheets–In green mountains

Heat is the precision of sunlight
and how it exudes

like a falcon–like a falcon

(a man, out the window)(the shadow of a sapling)

Inside the room

 

 


Nicole Mauro was born in San Mateo, California, in 1970. Her work has appeared in Skanky Possum, Big Bridge, Jacket, and numerous other journals. She is author of the chapbook Odes (Sardines Press, 2003). She teaches writing at the University of San Francisco, and lives in the Bay Area with her husband and daughter.


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