Woodcutters from Fiery Ships

The ants were walking fast And they disappeared finally into some tall grass Pete couldn't see where they went or what they were after It was a gray muggy day with some rain A light wind was blowing Pete saw the girl next door take off her clothes last night And walk through her house nude She went into a back room and Pete waited for her to come out But she never did Pete saw two children of the earth come out of the ground after that A cat killed one of them and played with the other Until one of its legs came off The moon was half full Someone was in Pete's yard last night Pete heard the person walk past his window and into the bushes Then out of the yard again Pete couldn't see them because the lights were on in his house At the diner Pete heard a man say that the doctors had cut him down his neck And into his chest They lifted his flesh away and parted his ribs and scraped his arteries A gray man with big ears lit a big cigar Smoke drifted over Pete's apple pie The men at the other table were very pale And were drinking bloody marys Nothing is moving in Pete's backyard Pete hears distant traffic and the electric clock is grinding gears near him Several woodcutters from fiery ships are coming in his door They are dressed in wool and are opening his drawers and his refrigerator One of them runs his hands up and down Pete's walls Stomping now and then and laughing They have discovered Pete and have him by the arms And Pete's going with them out under the orange tree They keep hitting Pete's knees with their smoking pipes The sun is coming out and a bird hops in the bushes The woodcutters are digging a hole Pete is upset about things His brain is sorting out information gleamed from this confusing life Things aren't making sense For instance, why is that boy bleeding from the mouth? Everything is moving except where it is perfectly still Pete's curtains open and close Smoke fills his room Blood shoots from the cracks The appliances roar Wind blows things Hurricanes through his lungs and the roots come out Woodcutters are everywhere now Moving quickly loading Pete into their craft The dogs howl in the night and blood rain fills the streets Babies float and hit Stars shoot and burst And blue lightning breaks the rotted gut of heads Swirls of flying ants are in Pete's room now Taking his shoes across the room as the fiery ship roars From the fiery ship he sees the girl now as she falls The first bump Then the second Maintenance men employed by the city cleaned her kitchen But it took two days Pete and the woodcutters were five trillion miles away... By then P.s. Pete learned to enjoy the woodcutters And their particular brand of humor