[Poem] King Knot

King Knot
The rats have come in broken circles,
Gambol, gambol, gamboling!
The rats have come in tens and twenties
Sickness-soaked to make their king!

Hear the scribbling of their footprints;
Hear the scratching of their paws;
Nails nibbled in the evening
Over eaves and beams and rafters
Keeping hungry mouths awake.
To-ing fro-ing, coming going in their many, many mattes,
Flummoxing the alley cats.

Once a year when Moon is waxing
From a winking fingernail
A secret smell, it tells the ratfolk
That the time of court is near.
So they smarten up their ratlings,
Pups and hairless babes the same,
Licking jaws and wringing whiskers,
Picking thistles from their tails.
“Hurry, hurry!” then they tell them,
“Hurry up and comb your fur,
Finish nibbling your morsels,
Follow us and don’t delay,
We have never missed the day!”

Every rat within the city,
Village, town, and culvert drain
Brings in with them on their bellies
Evidence from where they came.
Wet together, nestled warmly
By the rat hearts beating near,
All the slime from all the homes
And hearths of humans far and wide
Emulsifies and pools together,
Binding each to each inside.

Behold! The king has come again!
A reaching thing that moves in waves,
In pulsing mass it undulates
And tells whoever sees its crowns
To bow in shame, to count their crumbs,
And clean their corners when he comes.
For he is made of all we shed,
The living stuff, the portioned dead.