Need

Need, frantic need, eagle-taloned need is a pumping drill. 

The oil sloshes to the brim. The lid slams and it's a tanker

spewing smoke. It burps and hisses

into a truck. It barrels through highways. It pours

down underground. It's a gas pump and a car

and a stop and a refill and a continuing.

It pulls over at the side of a tall tree.

It chops and strips and grinds and pounds

until dead fish float downstream

and our need is a single sheet of paper

sliding into a typewriter. It folds and licks

and places three stamps and sends on beating wings

to a door somewhere. A man reads it and fastens

his chin strap, carrying a rifle as bodies

fall and things go up in flames. It finds him

and the coffin lid closes. As soon as it stakes

a cross in salute, the crush comes

squeezing the soil for more. Oh yes,

we need so very much.

 

 

Peter Cook and Kenny Lerner

Translated from the American Sign Language by John Lee Clark