Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, GEO-BESTIARY: 20, by JAMES HARRISON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GEO-BESTIARY: 20, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Who is it up to if it isn't up to you?
Last Line: "the creatures who thought, ""it's just a vulture."
Alternate Author Name(s): Harrison, Jim
Subject(s): Beauty


Who is it up to if it isn't up to you?
In motels I discover how ugly I am,
the mirrors at home too habitual to be noted.
I chose methodically to be anti-beautiful,
Christian fat keeps you safe from adultery!
With delight I drown my lungs in smoke
and drink that extra bottle of wine
that brings me so much closer to the gods.
Up the road a dozen wetbacks were caught
because one stopped at a ranch house, desperate
for a cigarette. Olive oil and pork sausage
are pratfalls, an open secret to the stove.
In the newspaper I read that thirty-two
dairy cows ate themselves to death on grain
by shaking loose an automatic feeder
("They just don't know any better," the vet said).
Of course false modesty is a family habit.
The zone-tailed hawk looks like and mimics
the harmless turkey vultures with which it often
flies for concealment, stoops in flight and devours
the creatures who thought, "It's just a vulture."





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