Why do you walk, Troll asks.
Why can’t you live under a bridge.
Goat gets up, straw mouth, blocks
thin path. His hooves strike
dry dirt, buck tooth bite, moot
argument. Troll climbs
under a bush. God picks Goat
up by his scruff. You should
hear yourself speak, He says,
boots him, perfectly, Goat lands
like bread.
Troll: Wet moss.
Goat: Tree algae.
Troll: Dead leaves.
Goat: Rocks in Water.
Troll: Nuts on ground.
Goat: Roses in thorns.
Troll: Farm.
Goat: Whorehouse in Gibraltar.
No one’s too strong, Goat;
Nothing useful is saved.
Bones stick out his fingers.
I got this from climbing, he said,
I play the guitar till I bleed.
Goat lifts his cartilage hoof,
worn, ground. Accordion, he said,
I eat anything.
He showed his yarn scars.
Troll brought him pieces
of the toll booth he had eaten.
They waited in the dark for rabbits.
from GOAT lies down on Broadway. For more info see here. Lino-cut by Tom Williams.
She was sleeping. She saw
velvet wet nose, thicket
whiskers, wilted ears
move across her dark room.
Was there something for her
to remember him by? Had he
left her without a footnote,
a reminder of love, yarns?
Only a laced remainder: he
ate her shoes, grinding eyelets.
from GOAT lies down on Broadway. For more info see here.
Maureen and her family look up.
Goat has disturbed security
more than once; he does not
look like a dog. Pillars,
stone, design, leveling cuts
or rock, time textbooks. All
ears return to this world:
Goat has stepped on a beer can,
hoof-crushed, scrapes like a
ghost up the steps.
from GOAT lies down on Broadway. For more info see here.
He couldn’t tell her
this wasn’t the petting zoo.
Little Maureen stood
in streetlight rain
by bus stop, patting
his horny face.
Goat wants to gore a Saab.
But he lets her tie yarn
to his horn stubs, and sits
calm, dog-like, smelling rain.
Goat drove the elephants over
Special Sam the Ringmaster
over Kogie the Bagel Clown
over Zumo the Lion Whipper
through rows of bleacher faced people
and three tons of elephant shit
to the open fields
where they did tricks with small trees
and waited for the Bambino Brothers
to bring them back
Have a fragrant evening, Fat Ram
told him. He smelled like seed.
Goat gunnysack slung over back
between teeth had half a mind
and half of that told him he
should eat the moon, big & fat
in his lean eye holes. But he let
it be, instead he gave Fat Ram
a hard swift kick in the hams,
rattling laughter off clouds
The green pastures
of Harvard University
withstood sneakers
but Goat, tenured
white tick bag,
found the president
stuck in a hedge
He would please
the gods,
he thought.
Get
Out she said real
Animals always
Try too hard
Winded, Goat
rounded rock bend
eyes shale, horns
hardly hearing
night birds
following him down
Lino block by Tom Williams
Translations from the English 