Severin Strelka

Short king! (Spikes)

Hot evenings on the riverside make us
All smell like the last rays of sun
And rotting driftwood baby!!
Come join us!! Come join
the fun of inhaling
Nitrogen that
Has been inhaled a
Thousand times before
By creatures like us, darling!
Will others make men of us yet?
No baby! We gotta do it all by ourselves
These days. You know what? that
Driftwood metaphor wasn’t
That far off. We start
Off as dead trees
Desolate
On the beach and
Then the water trans-
-lates us into pieces of art!
Whoever says we’re not native to
This world lies. We rot away! We sweat
In the last rays of sun! We inhale
Nitrogen that has been in the
Breath of thousands of
Creatures just like
Ourselves.