while u was away...
		------------------------------------------------------

		tossed my black dromedary
		in the grass by the ex-fire

		nothing food or scent in tent
		i only sleep here -- eat there
		gone for the day i kayak away.

		return -- late afternoon -- pull the gray boat up
		unsnap shed the orange vest put down my blue oar
		carefully like a gunbelt -- and:

		dusty paw print 3-inches on the dromedary
		dusty smudge on the hard black plastic top

		it's enough of a bitch to unscrew
		with opposable thumbs...

		a quick scouting of the hood
		deliberately noisy
		a quarter mile inland on a trail of all things --
		mass of black scat with berry seeds
		not deer (pellets) not coyote (smooth brown)

		nothing shits so voluptuously generously

		still warm.  animal gone
		trawling in the lake en route or already
		in port portly -- and rolling out.

		feasting or fasting?  it's damn dry.


			Marek Lugowski
			15 September 1997
			Chicago, Illinois