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I
The fat child sat in the dust,
Its mouth hanging open slackly,
The lips rimmed and caked
With dried jam and milk.
The fat child was killing ants.
The greasy hand rose and fell in the dust
Methodically pounding the thin stream
Into moredust while the sun
Dried mud into more dust and the wind
Blew the dust in little eddying whirlwinds
Across the dusty land.
The fat child's brother sat also in the dust,
His wide eyes narrowed, his thin lips set
As his fingers moved.
The ants crawled over his legs and arms.
The slender fingers wrapped a paper match
In tinfoil and touched a lighted match
Beneath the tinfoil.
The missil streaked off---and fell.
The wide eyes watched the fall
And the slender hand reached again
For match and foil.
II
The fat child sat in the dust
Pounding ants with a stone
While his brother strode
Like a giant through the land
Hiswide eyes filled with starlight.......
III
Sing I for a brave and galllant ship
And a stiff and rattling breeze,
A bully crew and a captain true
To carry me.....
Once more the word alone of the Iron Chancellor,
But the blood ran in the steel, and
The steel ran in the blood, and
The blood froze and the steel melted,
And the sound of fire screamed at the stars,
And a tiny cousin echoed the scream.
IV
The fat child stopped pounding the ants.
The vacant eyes and slack lips
Inclined upward.
The ants surged in new waves
Over the gross legs and belly.
Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud,
The fat child pounded ants once more,
While a tiny cousin echoed a thud,
That was not a rock yet was a rock,
Filled with dust and blood, blood and dust
And gray, gray. flesh.
V
The stars woke slowly and whispered
And the whispers grew and became shouts
As the message rattled to the ends. of nothing.
VI
A billion round, mud balls
Wait like women with barren wombs.....
Text entry and page scans provided by Judy Bemis
Updated May 16, 2003. If you have a comment about these web pages please send a note to the Fanac Webmaster. Thank you.