Heart like a bee hive, mind like a Kasai pagoda,
I am Theodore Roosevelt in a Marcus Aurelius onesie,
built for the long game, coming any minute

over a hill near you. I am Picasso scumbling
Colorform nudes on the shells at Saint-Tropez,
my baggy shorts apropos of an upper torso,

I am Ink in this pen that once stuck up the wig of a Geisha
and I flow like a Florida swale. You might ask
the opossum who shudders in dirt at the mouthfeel

and grease of my infinite yarn. I spread cerulean
blue like butter. My straw straw hat vexes the sun
and climbs to the motif in a picture that burns in the War. 

Rick Mullin’s new collection is Lullaby & Wheel, published by the White Violets Press imprint of Kelsay Books. His other books include Soutine (2012) and Transom (2017), both published by Dos Madres Press.