NAMELESS

by Elliot Ian Ross

I'm already taking a shotgun to the swallows
barking into a jar of homebrew
howling at the coyotes
GOING MAD at 25
The mosquitoes all grow drunk from my blood
and I dance around in my underwear
and I dance around naked
and I dance around, just a skeleton
in a swamp noone knows about
and I've been thinking all along
I never told anyone my name.

PALEONTOLOGY

by Elliot Ian Ross

I’m in a sprawl
Drying out

Letting time stroll
Soaking in

Chin rubbing the carpet
Of the new apartment
Wasting light

Beetles at this level, they’re cows
Elephants, I feel them surviving
Like swelling peaches.

Persisting in massiveness being
Dinosaurs lost and I’m a universe
Big.  Awkward waste of space
Fleshy. Lumpy. Wrong.

Fermenting under soursweet lemon light
Shunning time.

While beetle flashes blueblack and green
Volkswagen on tiptoe
Primed to combust.