The ants were walking fast
And they disappeared finally into some tall grass
Pete couldn't see where they went or what they were after
It was a gray muggy day with some rain
A light wind was blowing
Pete saw the girl next door take off her clothes last night
And walk through her house nude
She went into a back room and Pete waited for
Her to come out
But she never did
Pete saw two children of the earth come out of the
Ground after that
A cat killed one of them and played with the other
Until one of its legs came off
The moon was half full
Someone was in Pete's yard last night
Pete heard the person walk past his window
And into the bushes
Then out of the yard again
Pete couldn't see them because the lights were on in his house
At the diner Pete heard a man say that the doctors
Had cut him down his neck
And into his chest
They lifted his flesh away and parted his ribs
And scraped his arteries
A gray man with big ears lit a big cigar
Smoke drifted over Pete's apple pie
The men at the other table were very pale
And were drinking bloody marys
Nothing is moving in Pete's backyard
Pete hears distant traffic and the electric clock
Is grinding gears near him
Several woodcutters from fiery ships are coming in his door
They are dressed in wool and are opening
His drawers and his refrigerator
One of them runs his hands up and down Pete's walls
Stomping now and then and laughing
They have discovered Pete and have him by the arms
And Pete's going with them out under the orange tree
They keep hitting Pete's knees with their smoking pipes
The sun is coming out and a bird hops in the bushes
The woodcutters are digging a hole
Pete is upset about things
His brain is sorting out information gleamed
From this confusing life
Things aren't making sense
For instance, why is that boy bleeding from the mouth?
Everything is moving except where it is perfectly still
Pete's curtains open and close
Smoke fills his room
Blood shoots from the cracks
The appliances roar
Wind blows things
Hurricanes through his lungs and the roots come out
Woodcutters are everywhere now
Moving quickly loading Pete into their craft
The dogs howl in the night and blood rain fills the streets
Babies float and hit
Stars shoot and burst
And blue lightning breaks the rotted gut of heads
Swirls of flying ants are in Pete's room now
Taking his shoes across the room as the fiery ship roars
From the fiery ship he sees the girl now as she falls
The first bump
Then the second
Maintenance men employed by the city cleaned her kitchen
But it took two days
Pete and the woodcutters were five trillion miles away...
By then
P.s. Pete learned to enjoy the woodcutters
And their particular brand of humor