Ratcatcher, by Ed Coletti

for Francis Jammes (1868-1938)

 

moimoimoimoimoimoimoi
sodifficulttowrite
…………tooeasytoreciterecite

fly infestation
speckling sun-bleached
living room walls
pointillisme’s
blemish

for example
the me-poisoned
decomposing rat
beneath the floor?
within a wall?

when flies finish
rat flesh
does matter count
entropy demanding at least
some foul cooking pungency?

beneath the floor
within a wall?
no odor here tips me to
where dying rats retire
to transform.

---

Ed Coletti studied under Robert Creeley in  San Francisco (1970-71).  Recent poems appear in The Brooklyn Rail, North American Review, Spillway, Big Bridge, and Kentucky Review. Most recent poetry collection The Problem With Breathing(Edwin Smith Publishing –Little Rock- 2015).