Except For The Laughing Mouse by Shome Dasgupta

lazed daff-dils tilted drooped:

petals sagged yellows sad stems,

soaked fox tears--smoldered tongues

--smoke entwines teeth dripped with foliage, 

peppered grey hum:

lost song the way the bales of hay sit 

like they once conveyed meaning--turned 

tractor, declawed--mosquito bit,

daff-dils rest like they’re done, alone together

on stilts and twigs

--there is no bending--there is no standing

--there is nothing to be remembered--

except for the laughing mouse making its way 

toward: speckled mud house full of ants,

spread about with no antennae  

Shome Dasgupta is the author of i am here And You Are Gone (Winner Of The 2010 OW Press Fiction Chapbook Contest), The Seagull And The Urn (HarperCollins India), Anklet And Other Stories (Golden Antelope Press), Pretend I Am Someone You Like (Livingston Press), and Mute (Tolsun Books). He lives in Lafayette, LA and can be found at www.shomedome.com and @laughingyeti.