pater smokes
and mater
her skirts just so
spins yarn and
the chestnutheaded child (profane)
hoses the snow
honestly
yellow before the threshold
marking territory from beneath his skirts
the rooster hops away
to find his motivation
the gray cat observes
shawl-wrapped
grandmother trudges the mammal pens
a mary gone wrong
whose fear of god
is fear of living
holding fingers to her mouth
like a disharmonica
later this print later later
will lie horizontal on the counter
of a Belgian shopkeeper (1866)
whose mouth
drips chocolate
nougat
until lip droppings
strike brown between the henhouse
and the axle of god
- richard hacken