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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


GEO-BESTIARY: 20 by JAMES HARRISON

Poet Analysis

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."
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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