Red Sky

tossing out the morning apple
i speed along with the echoes
of caffeine.

though the birds are pecking ground,
                            they would rather fly .
though worms are avoiding
them,                they can only burrow
                            so deep.

the life and death of
the roadside
               is only that.

i can’t fly
or move underground.
i eat fruits
most mornings,
              brown under the skin,
spit pollen,
choke down the sun.

in the hub cap
a spider’s legs are white-knuckled in its web.

***

Livio Farallo is co-editor of Slipstream Magazine (est. 1981) and Professor of Biology at Niagara County Community College in Sanborn, New York. His work has appeared, or is forthcoming in, The Blue Collar Review, Biscuit Hill, Call Me, Rattle, Spillway, Spelunker Flophouse, Beatnik Cowboy, and others. And, by the way, “Rubber Soul” and “Abbey Road” are probably the best albums since 1600 (there was electricity then, wasn’t there?)