Strata

The origin of red ants…dandruff and itchy armpit. The origin of wine, as much the grape as the hindquarters of a roan stallion. They took his toys away and he wept, he railed. The origin of sharks…the fluttering moth and insomnia, or twitching of nervous left foot. As an adult, they built a wall between his hands and lover. Her black hair turned into an octopus. That was the origin of a pistol and obituary. The erasure of lizards with wing-spans like the red wood, a thunderbolt deep in the desert. The razing of cheap housing, linked to mushrooms and the thinning population of possums. The origin of mathematics: an eclipse, a legion of crabs covering the esplanade. After she died, he paused to hear the wind and voice of insects. He knew the ants were stitching a scripture of venom. The madmen sniffed and laughed. Its ending is its origin, he said, picking up a handful of mud to smudge a target in the center of his chest.