Hunt

All I desired was stuck
in the craw of an angel
masquerading as Crow.
Chased it down, forced Crow
to cough it up, it fell
slippery from my hands
and rolled under an abandoned,
jacked-up car on a seedy side street.
Crawled in on hands and knees to seize it
and it bit me. I recoiled
from blood and pain and watched it
scuttle off toward a church
on the corner. Followed it
at a careful distance
and saw it climb the altar
singing. Fell to my belly
before it and it leaped onto my back
howling in flow and rhyme of
my ignorance. I rolled over
and saw it flee laughing
into the mouth of a thunderbird
and lightning issued from
behind the teeth of the deity.
I despaired of it then
and turned back toward job
and family but it came out
and tugged on my pants leg,
saying, “Have you never understood
that the chase itself
is all you seek?” And it ran
and I ran and ran and it’s always
ahead of me and I am become
the thing itself, that which has been
inside the angel, Crow,
church, fiery bird; a swallowed
transmission from this profane
and sacred earth.