On my early walk
I passed the Frog Prince
dead in a rut of the road

his lordly legs spread out
for a royal leap
plump thighs
a fan of tapering toes

his shapely body
flattened
by a passing wheel

and, in a long and purple flume,
like a worm in the wet sand
his gut forlorn.

This Issue

April 18, 1996