Ortolan
September 17th , 2019 Arsonist’s Delight
I Amidst the mayflies
And the cattails,
Men shrouded in an
Eternal faith
Danced with the gnats
And the crocodiles
And the Fire
White peaked cloaks pranced
Like albino cormorants
Breached and searching
For some surface dwelling
Minnow,
separated from
the pack
My father was a dancer amongst
the Fire, The choreographer
Of their garish Formations
He told of their feasts
Their bulging goiters
Their quivering livers II Bésalu,
That is where my neck bulged,
Pulsed like a king bull frog
In late July
Where a deep, gestational
Urge to consume became
all encompassing A wayward Spaniard led
Me into the hall
Where the ballooned bodies
Of the Ortolan* sate ripe
To teach me the satisfaction of
The Fire
Our feast commenced
With the rainfall of
Mayflies,
Who had seen enough
An adjacent criminal
Turned his nose,
Casting a grotesque shadow
across the Table
Each movement of his head
A rehearsed
Dance with The Fire
I was Shrouded,
Spear-like bones
Punctured my tongue
Curled talons calcified
My taste buds,
Reducing them to placid scales
The Beak camped
Between two of my molars,
Breached and
Looking upwards as if to
Question the eternal faith
As if looking
For release from my fiery
Grounding molars
As if to question
The pulse beneath
My cloak 1* A nocturnal songbird illegally captured for consumption; the meal is
traditionally prepared by gouging out the eyes, force feeding, and drowning the
bird in a vat of Armagnac brandy and consuming the Ortolan whole while veiled
by a white cloth as to not only keep an aromatic atmosphere, but to hide the
shame of such cruelty from the eyes of God.
September 17th , 2019 Arsonist’s Delight I Amidst the mayflies And the cattails, Men shrouded in an Eternal faith Danced with the...