TO A SNAIL

Like flesh, or consciousness inhabited

by flesh, willful, bold, très chic, the skin

on your gelid body is brownish from age

and secretes viscid slime from your flat

muscular foot, like script, as if Agnes Martin

had wed Caravaggio, and then, after rainfall,

you ran away, crossing a wet road with Fiats

rushing past. Where is your partner?

Contemplating your tentacles and house,

gliding on a trace of mucus from some

dark stone to who knows where,

why do I feel happiness? It’s a long game—

the whole undignified, insane attempt at living—

so I’ve relocated you to the woods.