Archives :: Michael Youngs

Paulo on a Donkey

Appeared in the Fall 2005 issue.

After the Picasso

Paulo rides
on a donkey,
the very same
his father
bought him a week past.

Paulo's father
dressed him this morning
in a white hat, white sweater, white trousers.

Paulo would enjoy
shredding these clothes
into a tiny white cloud
of dust because they
remind him of his mother's
ghost face:

white, white, white;
white as God Himself.

Paulo squeezes
his tiny brows like worms
at the difference between
the donkey's wooden back
and his mother's mild lap.

View bio information and additional poems published in Half Drunk Muse on the author's main archive page.