Ampersands

... and we remarked on how piranhas, in uncounted numbers,

are capable of consuming an entire ampersand in such-and-such

a time frame. The sun was up, and below, and was somewhere

overhead. And I thought....    

... and we shared thick and hearty laughs, and continued into the very

dense jungle. And thick. Preceding us on the trailsides were ruins

overgrown, boots stuck in mud, and heads of sunken ampersands.

Which made sense to us, for....    

... and the rainy seasons came, and went, and came. And day, and

further day. And February was unusually warm, and this, in a zone

renowned for unusually warm Februaries. We cooled our hands

on ampersands, which warmed again when....    

... and you took my hand, and clasped it, tighter than I could stand it,

tighter than mud clasping ampersands still. And so I fell,

and you held me as I, unstanding, looked up at lianas in trees — 

the monkey skyways that    ....    

... and the language we used with each other became thicker.

We looked together at some ludicrous, large leaf — larger than us

both, and thicker even than several large ampersands, together.

We used thick language to describe it, then....    

... and we grew ravenous and set camp. And established a village.

Built huts with cots, and plots of land for farms. We grew ampersands

there and ate them, and when through with their husks, threw them

into our yards, where....    

... and you took me, deeper into jungle, with the wild dogs

and boars, and cackling beasts, and beasts that swung in silence.

Dangling from the tufts, saliva strands from ampersands obscured us

in the roughs. We toweled and traveled and tired and....    

... and the birds became aware of our presence, though we desired

to blend in. We made tangible feathers from intangible thoughts,

stuck beaks to our mouths using ampersand glue. We sat in our colors,

without motion for days, until....    

... and you communed with insensible arrangements: changeable

organizations; shapeless distractions; puffs of dimension; ampersands;

the dead. I pulled you close and kissed you, but all I could taste

was vortex, and sweet guava, and the distances to....    

... and we grew thicker together, for I too could perceive, in the dry

expanses, forms of invisible logos made thick — the un-wet language

of communicable waves. We washed ourselves in it, but our feet,

touching ampersands, touched not the....    

... and you dipped your foot, from the riverbank into the river,

where the piranhas began eating. And I sat, looking at my hands.

Sat, for there was nothing I could say. On the riverbank, alone.

There, with whatever remained. &....