please excuse me
my disheveled coat and wild-eyed appearance
this morning

but last night
I taunted the sleeping people
within an inch

of my brief hairy life

it was the fat moon
ancient enemy
of cats

dripping its thick
greasy light
through a kitchen window

that stirred my glands again

I howled
like I was born
in the middle country

moved to this place
that smells of wet trees
fruit and salt

the moon is two thousand

miles wide
and the ocean
seven minutes deep

and some nights
I awake with visions
of the edge of the sun

a waterfall of flames larger than a hundred worlds

or all the tuna
fish in the world
behind the bathroom door

just open the door
just open it

JD Frey--February 10, 1998