Shat

whence these dense trees?

My palm trees were shat out by birds
They sat and shat dining on dates
Ravens sat and spat out strong words

A raven's riddle germinates
Into the earth onto the air
Sit and sat spit and spat they shat

And yet they riddled even that

With question marks remaining where
Both rat and cat know better than
To question ravens like some man

But ravens answer anyway
Sitting spitting shitting between
Doing their do saying their say
And palm trees might be what they mean

I think they shat out these palm trees

All I know is I got them free
And grateful for such gifts as these
I wonder if you wonder too
About ravens and what is true

Or reading ravens might be you
In which case they are everywhere
In poetry and in this tree

Second helpings of dates then thirds
Providing for themselves and me

Up in the sky down on the ground
Above below and all around
This shared shade of a shat palm tree

+Steven Curtis Lance



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