gods and animals

God does not speak through men
he speaks through the pasty mud
caked on his naked body
the crevice of cheek and brow
life will be sustained mellifluously
by ghosts visiting from the past
to haunt.

he woke up to see two of them;
One that kills and One that loves
his paws ached and as he gently
moved each ligament he felt
the dry mud crack on his skin
he smeared the mud on his forehead
and sighed.

the One that kills, oblivious
the One that loves shed a tear
the truth came swiftly to him
like the merman messenger
rushing to the merman king
to warn of titans approaching
to drink.

wash away the days of mud
and the One that kills comes alive
feels the urge to take on a lover
and bed her in sheepish disguise
smear on pasty mud; more, more
so the One that loves felicitates
all night.

waves of fair wispy hair
come to him from a lifetime
before the mud smeared on body
before the Ones stood on constant watch
a hand, a finger, a nail, a tip
of something somewhen long ago
now mad.

God does not speak through animals
he speaks through the pasty mud
ripping bodies alive again
muscles expand and fall again
life will fade, death erase, the mind becomes
pregnant.