Bats

Bats invite me to say
Something clever 
Though I'm not sure how.
They suspend themselves 
Upwardly in air
Going in a direction I can't follow.

I'm part me, part of me 
Bitten in two pretty red pieces,
Halfsies.
Part another thing altogether.
Just an observer 
Trying not to slip sideways.

I take absolute precaution 
Going forward in life.
I'm painfully careful.
The bats teach me I'm to spread 
My wings
So they're not touching.

The points of each wing threatening 
The night that's coming.
I try to get away from your voice.
That's haunting.
But the more I do get away 
The more it hunts me.

You could call it the voice of love
Or the voice of destruction.
You could say that the bats 
Have known it.
And that their hairy bodies 
Have boarded the current of air 
Accordingly.

I could rehearse the hearse 
Drive down the avenue 
As I have one hundred 
Ways from Sunday.