Ode to the Banana Slug

Oh slimy California native,
northern forest dweller,
leaver of mucid trails
on kitchen surfaces,
oh happy creature,
phallic mascot, mollusk,
whose entire body smells,
whose tentacles see,
whose smiley-face &
long fat yellow body
slithers through the U C
mug of Santa Cruz, who
snuggles in glasses
over airhead eyes,
a cartoon grin
on a sweat shirt,
holding a book of Plato
in thick yellow fingers.

Oh slimy California native,
available in stuffed, crawling
versions, squeezable & soft,
I see you nibbling with many teeth
through the redwoods,
munching native greens,
creature both male & female,
who mates when it rains:
hours of circular contortions,
genitals the length of your bodies,
so tangled together
to get loose you must chew
each other's phallus to bits.

--from Clifton Snider, Moonman: New and Selected Poems (World Parade Books, 2012)

Page created on 25 April 2016

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