Of Cabbages and Kings
Cliff Saunders

She throws
a head of cabbage
at my face
so grabbing
my canteen filled
with boiling seawater
I exile myself
into the memory
of her skin
pausing
only to chase
four winged pigs
through a sandstorm
where I meet a hermit
popping scorpions
into his scurvy maw
and drinking dust
from his shoes
claims to be king
of the lost nomads
as I drag his body
into a nearby foxhole
where a limey
mathematician
pours sealing wax
on his childlike eyes
then falls asleep
counting by touch
his genital hairs
I dump the brine
from my canteen
and blow into it
like a Norse conch
suddenly oysters
poke through the sand
and squirt their juices
all over my body
they are hissing
her name at me
Alice  Alice

Cliff Saunders’ poems have appeared most recently in Hawai’i Pacific Review, Skidrow Penthouse, The Tonopah Review, California Quarterly, and Tattoo Highway. He teaches creative writing in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

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