Robert Fleming lives in Lewes, DE. Published in United States, Canada, England, Ireland, and Australia. Member of the Rehoboth Beach and Horror Writer’s Association. 2022 winner of San Gabriel Valley CA broadside-1 poem, 2021 winner of Best of Mad Swirl poetry and double nominated for Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Follow Robert at https://www.facebook.com/robert.fleming.5030.

we were before waring

we wore hair keratin like baboons &
knocked our chests like gorillas

we wore skin like zebras &
bent-over to water like wilder-beasts

we wore muscle like lions &
paw swatted flies like bears

we wore bones like swine &
dug dirt worms like robins

we wore blood like falcons &
taloned on branches like pigeons

we wore fig leaves like chameleons &
hide motionless like a rat out-preying an ambush snake

you named us Adam & Eve
we were before words

the stork still brings suckers

a newborn baby’s mouth knows how to suck
Barnum started takin coin from oowers & awers
the side show started with P.T. covered with leeches
blood oozing out of epidermis 
rolling down from chest to loin
hmm, band aided i can leach better than leeches
screaming to the center ring top hat
people I envy the most want to be sucked
outside the big top build stages for
snake with three heads 
bearded lady &
an office for P.T.
a sucker must have someone to suck