HERD FLOCK HIVE

Threat gets our attention. Try

reading it again with a fever.

Try with a knife to your throat,

an oyster. Caught in the headlights’

glare the hare zigzags back

and forth to escape its own shadow.

Crickets come programmed

for evasive action: first,

move left; second, move right;

beyond that there’s no predicting.

Nights, we take nothing to our breasts.

Ghost milk slakes ghost thirst.

Every one of its hundred blue eyes

tells the scallop when to slam shut.