Like Legendary Hellbenders

" Like Legendary Hellbenders "

by Suzán Jiván

Performed on YouTube
as, " Propped Up on a Harpsichord "

Propped up on a harpsichord
willfully transformed
by a trenchant voice
with a bit of tabloid force
pulling the whole score off course
in a series of wall pieces
hanging from a rectangular peg rack
as a penchant for the abstract
on a red-and-white banner
in the manner of a patchwork
twisting against black
in a vacant chapel
Narrow, ragged and masked
with a miasmic camphor
Like extra hours
for taxidermied animals
stacked one upon the other
on their favorite basking log
as a fête gallante
of contemporary art
with greatly enlarged heads
as early nesters
Like legendary Hellbenders
facing hordes of predators
almost nothing with scores
to settle with anyone else
like a code of silence
on a slimed fishing line
As miners panning for gold
along a remote riverside
forming nuggets from dust
in carved cuttlefish bones
Steeped in local lore
along twin falls
tickled at the thought
of being carved
from pink marble
then being mocked
as facsimiles
of the flotsam
like rubber duckies
gone amok
on virtually any subject
if not for nothing
as a font wonk
with interlocking
camaraderie...