The Albino African Clawed Frog and Other Poems

By Robert Beveridge

The Albino African Clawed Frog

The machinery thumps, cracks,
presses a thousand thousand
plates into a thousand thousand
—what else?—other plates.
Cannibals are rumored to live
on the valley floor, but what if,
just this once, a longpig really is
just the opposite of the litter's runt?
We carry it on its spit to the fire,
set it up, leave Rottiger to turn,
turn, turn. A time to cook and a time
to eat, gamy taste and all. That
nonsense about adrenaline’s 
effect on the taste is just that.
Ploughshares are just not the right
tool for this. The machinery needs
recalibration. Call the mechanics.
Make sure they are hungry.

Jeremy Bushnell

after Éluard

All of these square-jawed people
sit and shiver in their corners
while piles of flies not quite dead
build up around them

One lone pickup crawls through
this primordial muck on rotten
tires, without even the inertia
to commit suicide. Jerks along
as its side panels rust before
the very eyes of those cold men

Next Stop Salina

Crack a cold one, slice the bread,
get yourself a sheep or two to see
the winter through—those zombies
get hungry if you hit a warm spell.
The rooster twists itself into panko
noodles, but we still can’t find
a thing to get those zeppelin bends
out. You need it by Thursday?
We work with what we got. Go
to the other side of Black Mountain,
ask the hens for advice.

a sad walrus

stumbles down the gangplank
asks over and over again
if the baby has seen the garlic
and if he can borrow a bulb
for the Sunday pot roast
about to go in the oven

Tormentor

mass grave 

thousands of empty arms
await us
in our current solitude

all captured by cameras
for the eyes of the world

torn from the arms
of the Mother
we scream
enfold
or release

let us fall away

Vampire

the sun disappears
below the horizon
you awaken to the glow
of electric lamps
your job awaits you
in the night

Robert Beveridge (he/him) makes noise (xterminal.bandcamp.com) and writes poetry on unceded Mingo land (Akron, OH). Recent/upcoming appearances in Midwest Zen, egoPHobia, and FRiGG, among others.