Aesthetics

we must know a force
greater than our weaknesses
—Jean Toomer

like most boys, ignorant

or fearful of beauty, we

pinned back the wings

of butterflies and plucked

off their legs, and watched

and watched them tumble

from leaves like pinecones

wheeling from rooftops;

and we laughed.

we crumbled alka-seltzer

for the pigeons, “those

flying rats” my mother’s

ex-husband once called.

their bodies floundering like

toys flung from a window.

white foam from their mouths

stark against the asphalt

framing their artless convulsions

and we laughed

with open-mouths until

tears dripped from our

chins and our throats

were raw with the rightness

of god.

DESIGN AESTHETIC