there is no escape from the event
no exit from the mansion
this game room choking with imbeciles
my place of honor at the banquet table is empty
i eat scraps with the servants in the kitchen
i raise my glass to them
and fill their glass's
was i expected to dine with a man who shot gazelles from a jeep
was i to make small talk and carouse
to recite inspirational quotes and cheerful anecdotes
surrounded by the most wondrous strange and elegant of beast's
shot
decapitated
stuffed
and mounted
at my right whole families of giraffe
at my left zebra's
all theses morbid wax idols
eternally grazing
would i say to my courteous kind host with his desert brandy and cigars
what bravery what ingenuity
how were you abel to stalk capture and kill this family of zebra
cunning and elusive as fox's
or this family of giraffe more fierce and deadly than a whole pride of lions
and here these foul gazelles
well by god you have eradicated the scourge of the earth
and single handedly prevented a second advent of the black death
now all you raise your glass's
to the great hunter may he kill everything of tranquil beauty
blessed be he our very own anti noah
but this is fantasy
i will take my place at the mongoloids table
and gorge myself with duck and spirits
and late in the night
with a dead great horned owl after kissing its lacquered beak
i will sleep under the billiard table