MA EN GUN SWIMS
Why do you take this much,
you greedy dog,
searching for handouts
Move for what comes free,
lie down in another’s shade,
watch for the known’s,
Find out how it works,
then work it, so it comes your way,
within your speed
Know where those crumbs fall,
what and how they will be offered
Go ahead, and beg in traded looks, but really,
steal when no one is looking
Then take all and run away,
look back and point out the fault of those
Who shared their place, their food, their laughter,
their love
Look back and point out their weakness, not just their truth, but a twisted one
Shake it loose from that bone, tear it back and forth in your teeth
Make it ugly and garish for want for more
Claim victimhood in that bone, that was not yours to begin with
Then call that bone sparse, make it less then it was before and then, take more
Make it small in your jealousy, in your liquid jelly mind that takes to any mould
Pour out what you could never justifiably use, and waste it all around
Scale it thin and then above all else, trash it behind on your trail, for the next and the new
Like that skanky dog, never be big like the wolf but brag like you are
Stay at ground level, skulking around for your next free meal
Act like a king, but be poor of mind and spirit as you pull and take and grab and shake
Then run for cover, and call them all names as you bask in the sun of another’s beach
And although you lay blame and accuse in colours of tarnished reds for gold
Say that no other pooches would be takers. Tell those lies to smooth your broken skin
Because, you are not that bather on that sunny beach
You are that scavenger dog manifesting the destiny of another, hunkering under for more
You are that coward, swimming away after leaving the remains for another score
Act cute so they might stroke you. Roll around on the ground so they might play with you
Lie like you shine like that billboard up high, claiming clean and green
Call yourself ma un gun as you swim in waters you’ve peed in
But don’t blame them when they see you
Because it was you, who knowingly came to bleed and steal more then you needed
To use and abuse and you did it, in your own stupid way, as dogs only know how
To run away when the mess they cause takes over their bed
For dogs never sleep in their own shit. They only stop long enough to sniff it
And sniff it they do, long and hard to know who made it and whose it is
And then they pee on it to change it, to change its identity into their own, to mark it
And they call themselves wolf, as they swim away in their own feces
We share this earth, whatever is eaten lives in you
What you do to there, you do here to yourself.
"Ma-en-gun Swims" 15"x40" Acrylic on Fir
LauraLee K. Harris