mather schneider
 
   

Mather Schneider is a cab driver in Tucson.

 
   
August in my Mouth
 

The locusts insist on
their July electrathon
and under

the Nagasaki-rose
of the sun
a stray cat

pounces on a lizard
in the dust
bites down

on scales of
rainbow
like three thousand centuries

forked
in blind tail-
thrashing terror.

Death only
has
one lesson.

 
   
In the Retina-Tearing Sun
 
A black beetle crawls in circles on the pavement
while three kittens
torture it.
It writhes and rears
with big mean pincers
not knowing what big white gods have
torn down upon him.
One by one they swipe their little
killer paws.
They don’t know the hunger
yet the hunger will
come later.
The kittens sniff it when it doesn’t
move anymore
and then the bravest one
leans down and
bites it.
There is a crunch
like shell candy
and a squirt of goo.
The kitten shakes his head and rubs his mouth
with his paw
like a child taking his first sip
of whisky
and they all run away
to mother’s milk
kneading and kneading 
her fur.
 
   
A Giant Tree Screaming in a Thunderstorm
 
Gazelles stargaze on a
calendar on the wall  
as I argue with a man on the other side
of the Atlantic Ocean.
He chews his morals
like fatback
and spits them at me through
the virtues of the computer age
like a giant tree
screaming in a thunderstorm.
Lingerie models with little red 
ladybugs eyes
stand ready to eat their mates
as they wait tables
and play records in
studio apartments
pretending they're artists.
People do not want to be challenged,
they want prepackaged blame,
they want lives like
shrink-wrapped board games. 
And across the sea
the people are the same.
 
   
Holiness Hates Itself
 
like sour love
flat soda sex
memories like old cushions
heads unlikely
as intelligence
vast sky
anthill universe
backdrop of icy
nothing
beyond hunger and
satisfaction
the death of the rock
bruises space
and tiny invisible worlds
are left over
in the purple air
with my small melting humor and this
call to you.