You'll know it when you see
stars and kindred
soldiers, rain resistant
and immune to coiled snakes
sniffing glue-like cacti,
exacting in their inbred
capacity for sloughing off
skin fitting like a reptile purse
across the bones.

Don't bother committing
to memory, putting to rights
this far cry from intelligence.
One of the rafters will chastise
one of the strangers in our midst.
One of the elders will ransack
honest moonglow
for its origin, and the tables
will be turned before
they're iodized and full of sun.

Sheila E. Murphy

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