ONE HALF (RAIN) AND ONE WHOLE (SWEDEN) READYMADE PLUS AN EPILOGUE

1—Rain

Sheep stuck on their backs

(itchy hindquarters can

cause a sheep to flip;

the animal tries to rub lick scratch

itself and falls over)

sheep stuck on their backs

sometimes never get up again.

If unsaved by human intervention

(a sheep that has been righted

can fall over again immediately afterward:

first roll the sheep onto one side,

then, several minutes later,

onto the other side,

over the belly)

if unsaved by human intervention

these sheep are doomed to die.

Sometimes death occurs in just an hour,

sometimes after half a day.

In the rain,

rain,

in the rain,

this is seldom observed.

Perhaps because rain

on the sheep’s belly

rouses the animal.

2—Sweden

In Sweden a man froze to death

after fleeing nude

on his snowmobile

to escape a fire in his log cabin.

3—Epilogue

A man on his deathbed told me:

Of course a day will come when, figuratively,

the angel of death is out of a job.

He’ll have to do away with himself.

I mean—there is no—the death of death is