James Callan

Agnostic Behavior

Cloven skulls of
bovine beasts
Megafauna heads
housed upon the shoulders of men
Bison brains and yak
Bullhorn embellishing their codpiece.

Mythic cleaver

Obsidian pommel—
an heirloom to temper
MY FEAR  
I take his skivvies
and wipe
MY ASS
Cleaning
MY BALLS
with his beard.

He spared me, the fool!
That hare-brained rectal pollop   
And meanwhile
I grew to nurture
MY MIGHT
Resentment fermenting to foam, 
hissing oaths to make
Lunchmeat
of his brawny pecs,
tremendous glutes—
jigsawed fragments of bone.

Squatting, shitting
beside his vacant husk,
I scribe in scrimshaw  
MY VALOR
across his ribs
Porno pictographs in his secret cave
Lusty and violent,
terrible to behold!

Maidens weep
when the best man falls—
when he and the other fellas are dead
Women throw oaths
hurling stones in
MY FACE
as I raise
MY HANDS
to block
MY EYES
guarding the fact that I grieve among them.