mosquito lament
© 1995 Devon Koren

the leopard dogs
with hazel acorn eyes
disguise
the keys that unlock
any door
with skeletons hidden
beneath the planks
and pranks
that clank
and go bump in the night
i sing a song
of plastic neon spiders
squash little buggy you're dead dead dead!
embedded in the concrete of
a spiral velvet staircase
crashing
with slinkies that dance
always falling
toward the center of the earth
i want to be a blackbird
tonight
just a blackbird
or a bluejay
or a dancing canary
or one of those imitation
polly-want-a-cracker parrots
from technicolor cartoons
with rusty punchlines