From Mantis 3

Maybe Mama Lion

Michael McClure

Audio Version

No,
It’s oh yeah. . . oh yeah . . . ; the wound
papered over, making paper tygers
—WITH A BANDAID. . .
BANDAIDS. . . BANDAIDS. . .
—F
E
E
L
I
N
G
SO
BAD!
Out of body in the blackness.
Solid silver blackness of forty billion years
—in an agony of Crazy, knowing nothing
—looking for a self to hold the mind.
BEEN THERE MANY TIMES. BEEN THERE MANY TIMES.
The sand underfoot is just a blackness
to hold the blind. Coming back to voices:
CALI, GOING BACK TO CALI, BACK TO CALI

FORNIA,
FORNIA,
NOT TO THE
FUR
N
A
C
E
—but to the wound!

Many years covered over, still deep
S
T
I
L
L
there; TRIED TO BANDAGE IT
with long stem roses and with ferns.

((Lying on the beach watching chipmunks,
watching chipmunks and BUGS
and
ODD
patterns
ON
the leaves.
HURT IN
MY SELF ES
T
E
E
M
!

((There’s a bloody war outside that’s whistling
through the wound!))

stretching
out to Someone
in
a DREAM;
IT’S NO DREAM, STRETCHING OUT TO MAMA LION
IN A DREAM.
SO BAD! FEELING SO BAD! ALL MY FRIENDS
HAVE LEFT ME
and we’re eating rich food, rich food,
with the sound of silver clinking
on the finest plates
—IN CALI, GOING BACK TO CALI—
we’re eating you
in a dream. You’re a salmon.
California salmon coming back to rivers
flowing from a head
on a cliff where folks look down on
the top of eagle’s wings.

IT’S A GOOD LIFE!
IT’S A GOOD LIFE!
IT’S A GOOD LIFE!

(out of body out of mind)

—while the rain forests are coming down

IT’S A GOOD LIFE!

while the rain forests are coming down

Hear the crashing sound

IT’S DEEP INSIDE

Your life swinging round

your body.

Does Mama Lion love you?

Does Mama Lion love you?

DOES MAMA LION LOVE YOU?

Can the salmon drown?

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