before the tigers / lived on cold mars – the man cat / dreamed of his people

then – tigers were only a / yellow and black idea

it howled above the / rust red sand at night – how was / the man cat to sleep

dry eyes make no tears – so the / moonlight is hard on the skin

martian flowers bloom / only in hot houses and / still they die early

the man cat prayed to the / tiger / god ares for water

and in the cloudless / dawn – the ice moon melted / above / an iron field

purple streams ran through manmade / canyons and filled with the dead

was ares really / a god – or some demon / wanting / a new domain

desire is a meaty / blossom / that can eat any brain

tigers – like weapons / for harvesting life – rose from / the water – laughing

they smelled people and tore the / door off of every house

the man cat said to / ares – stay your army – you / can live inside me

but sly ares – a wild / animal / saw in this a trap

he said – happy child / you want to be my tamer / but I can eat you

and the man cat said – tame or / no – tigers must have gardens

a tiger without / a garden to plant its life / in dries up too soon

ares sat still for some time / there was no moon remaining

and the sunlight / investigated / every / side of this small god

the fire in his eye was to / destroy him and all tigers

atop the tower / the wind smelled of dead insects / no one was laughing

ares said – will you have this / sad shell of a deity

and the man cat said / if i can have your name – you / will roar through my mouth

ares rose above the man / cat and melted into hi

the people were all / dead – roaming tigers listened / to weeds by the road

were they to be the / inheritors / of a cold hard sphere

on the hot breath of / ares man cat – their names lived / like flowering grass

black rye – crab stew – spring eddy / sour root – cicada – dog fish

a daydream – like an / early thunder cloud – shaves time / off of the morning

every blue tiger eye / was a sea in the red noon