November 6, 2020 – Poetry Life and Times

so far up to now what comes after after question what comes after after answer recognition of an intention take it or leave it an object of thought in word & image to a certain extent on the vertigo edge of vortex up front after logical preambles on proof of origins lead nowhere in particular or general come to that it may be said do not begin in the begin but in the 'medias res' slaughter the insects the wild wandering albatross the elephants & the children too back to normal everyone sing along it's all a game of power in the end for everyone right or wrong it's an age of controle freak of totalitarian double speak on the wrecking light unfolds the millennium in a race to get to the next word to get it heard by might & right before we're switched off like the radio a danse macabre of marionettes after all that's gone before nothing's left of us at all but echoes with no promise of return but our extinction on that precipice the vertigo vortex trembles millennium titling outward bound but bound to the rock jailhouse around the clock in the billionaire grab market racket packet the power of money meanwhile back at the ranch nature in freefall all creatures great & small we arbitrate but it's too too late to reciprocate circumstantiate

A known killer crocodile 
Flaubert strikes fear 
into the hearts of the villagers 

because its immense size 

having eaten many people 

hunters want to catch it alive 


72 metallic pieces comprise the puzzle 
a trap cage that will catch the beast 

which only a few have seen 
it is said tufts of grass grow from its head 

hunters search the mud banks of the vast 
delta into the heart of darkness 

junkies 	search between bamboo slime 
where concealed as a mud bank they find it 

a necklace of terrible teeth in the clay 
a flat plain 	empty as the night 

a hole that holds you in its sight 
maws 
that tear flesh of even hippopotamus 

it appears to be more than 100 
but teeth reckon it 60 
still growing 

a  cow's head is placed inside the trap 
but Flaubert does not take the bait 

a white spot beads the infra red night 
Flaubert's eye that nightly visits 

the villagers say he's a familiar under the spell 
of an evil person	 which must be broken 

in the midst of their efforts meanwhile 
Flaubert strikes again 	yet another 
human is rent limb from limb 

the hunter's plan is not working 
they must find a new technology 
to capture 
this exceptional creature before it 
strikes again 

Flaubert 
is sighted 
holding up 
on a high delta 
plain 
where nothing 
escapes 
its watchful eye 
below 
they struggle 
to set up 
hydraulic 
cable traps 

this time they use live bait 
a goat 
but Flaubert is never fooled 
the hunters 
are baffled 
the waiting continues 

Flaubert springs the trap 
snatches the goat 
the hunters' time has run out 
Flaubert disappears 
into delta slime 
& the villagers wait

Robin Ouzman Hislop is on line Editor at Poetry Life & Times at Artvilla.com. His numerous appearances include Cold Mountain Review (Appalachian University, N.Carolina), The Honest Ulsterman, Cratera No 3 and Aquillrelle’s Best. His publications are collected poems All the Babble of the Souk, Cartoon Molecules, Next Arrivals & Moon Selected Audio Textual Poems. A translation from Spanish of poems by Guadalupe Grande Key of Mist and Carmen Crespo Tesserae, the award winning (X111 Premio César Simón De Poesía), in November 2017 these works were presented in a live performance at The International Writer’s Conference hosted by the University of Leeds. UK. A forthcoming publication of collected poems Off the Menu is expected in 2020