A Cock For Asclepius
 

Wonder how I ended up
in me.  Remember years of sup-
plication, settling down, like
layers in an unwashed mug
and I, the hemlock, ploughed
and dormant, folded by
domestic drug.

Once the numbness, rigid cold
like coinage. Wipe the mouth, old
winter gone.  You follow fire
and soot its crackling, shadow
strings upon the wall.  Bowed
back to you, open eye
on fading glow.

One draught, the spark flew wild.
Pasture, black to green, defiled:
awakened.  Weeds seed madly,
toxins spreading, stop the breath
of creased, decreased and cowed.
Deal to conjugal lie
a welcome death.