The Humans

Melissa Dickson Click to read more...

mdickson-207Melissa Dickson’s debut collection, Cameo, was published in 2011 by New Plains Press. Her work has recently appeared in North American Review, Southern Humanities Review, Literary Mama, and The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. Her Medusa-themed poems are forthcoming under the title Sweet Aegis in 2013. She holds an MFA in Visual Arts from SVA and an MFA in poetry from Converse College. She is a mother of four.

Have scattered, have dithered and dathered, the humans
In helmets, in velvet, and veil, the humans recoil to their roosts
With buckles and booze, in funny white shoes,
The humans in duds of charmeuse, in knickers or knit, they scatter

And gather to chitter and chatter. The humans they scatter,
They wave and they whimper the glib and the glibber, scattered
Like feathers or flint. They rumble and riot, roost
In the viaduct, cruel fellas in slippers or boots, shoes

Patent or suede, slacks checkered with jade, shoo
Them home with their cheap chirping hearts, battered they scatter,
The dear pitter patter of boys and girls tumbled and tossed, scattered
Then smattered they swig and they swagger and shoot, shoehorned

And shopworn, the hoodlums and well-born, the humans
All clamor, get fatter and fatter, their brims and their shoe
Leather burst, go home to your harems, your roosts
Ripe with cherubs, you belles and you barons, your shoes

Laced with scarabs, you roosters and hens, you peckers in pens, you scatter
and stammer and flit. The humans, they want and they wane. The humans

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