The California Supreme Court left in place a lower-court decision holding that bees are fishâat least for the purpose of protecting them under California’s endangered species law. American Bar Association
Since information is physical,
and bumblebees are now fish,
I create my own world from words.
A steep slope in the MyrkviĂ°r Impenetrable Forest
falls away from a window
that makes up a single wall.
I hold a bottomless cup of coffee
like Thorâs drinking horn
that drains the North Sea.
When I drink, coffee junkies
at Starbucks wince
as prices rise with a buzz.
I grow whiskers to stroke
like a portable, scruffy dog.
My dogs need a break. They roam outside.
I read from a room full of more books
than I can read in two lifetimes.
Every day more books arrive.
I lean on stairs that stop at the ceiling.
Stairs are better than chairs.
Thereâs many places to sit books
and my coffee.
An enormous wolf, FenrisĂșlfr,
curls between book stacks.
It snores with the hum of a bee
under water.
A gnawed hand lies by its muzzle.
Some days I read etymologies.
Thatâs how I know Alan
superpositions several realities deep in its morpheme:
little rock, handsome, a Celtic deity,
an ancient Persian tribe of the Great Salt Desert,
and my favorite, a wolf.
I stroke the scruff of my chin,
sip my coffee,
watch the fish buzz around a hive.
I toss my head and howl.
The wolf and the dogs join. They fear
my words might say theyâre squirrels.