Elephant in the Coal Mines

He dreamed of decomposing logs and
scrubbed off horse’s hoof. The boy 

with missing teeth 
had a head of sandalwood 

of eyebrows of basalt his croutons
spongy as the pre-soak cycle.

From an egg a scramble. From 
an elephant a flea a large pink body—

the bald bone. He receives 
her bandana her sandwich her pillow.

Boy had lots of lost stomach,
from stomach to stomach to wall.

Nathaniel Vincent Mohatt | Mudlark No. 42 (2011)
Contents | Painted, She Wars