Jesus was an otter,
teaching ants to dance.
It’s a two thousand year old saddness
that there are less otters than ants.
Otters can dance.
Ants can’t.
I’d rather be an otter than an ant.
Otters wear dance pants.
Ants, overalls.
Overall,I rather dance pants.
Otters sniff the lillies of the fields.
Ants eat them.

(I”m making this up as I go along.
just come along for the ride.)

Otters sleep in the shade
when the sun is high and hot.
Ants work, work, work.
They are obsessive-compulsive.
Otters float on kelp to eat clams.

I thought my GRAND AUNT GENEVIEVE
was an ant when I was young,
until she turned eighty,
when at the party we gave her,
I, just once, gathered the courage
to wrap my arm around her shoulder.
She stared at me and said.
‘WELL, KENNETH, IT’S ABOUT TIME”
An otter in aunts clothing.

It’s a good thing to be an otter
or that otter of the sea,
the dolphin.

(At the 87th coming of Jesus,
He was a dolphin, teaching
whales to fly, which later led
to the appearance of a seagull
named Jonathan.)

(I’m making this up as I go along,
just come along for the ride.)

That’s what I want for me:
An otters soul like Jesus,
and the spirit of the
dolphin in the sea.