owls on the cover of Vogue / that’s how their faces looked
when the story broke / it made the paper stink
you can’t trap a skunk / in it’s coat

a trial’s on the tv news / and maybe nothing else
but no sacred clues / cut up the stolid ground
to beam up and down / wild avenues

pebbles under neon sand / to chase a progress back
hot metal crayon / distorted color crack
burr scatter mark / on the bark

but I don’t want to be this dark / or spread bubonic plague
before the panics start / to eat my arm and leg
mad nervous rage / I know my age to the day

a flower in the ruler’s hair / who scared the horses off?
won’t soften blows / I’m only throwing shoes
stop blowing holes in the roof

I don’t need a secret proof
of the famous truth
when blood in my ear
is all I can hear