Nature’s Ugly Monster Head
by David Dannov

 

Even though nature is beautiful and serene

there’s still a monster madness

existing behind the grass.

 

Sitting in a spring garden

with wispy clouds floating above

and a sunshine that makes you feel

alive as a human tree blooming

with fire branches

you cannot forget

there is a battle

of ants crawling over a dying rat

somewhere close by.

 

Standing on an ocean bluff watching

the sun like a god in reverence of his creation

you cannot forget the sharks

swimming beyond the reef

and lunging with teeth like pearl razor blades

toward a herd of sea lions and their pups

swimming in a playground of water

and splashing.

 

Crabs crushed by a baseball bat

swung by a teenager with pimples

on a sailboat deck near San Pedro.

 

Your neighbor’s dog lying on the side of a freeway

with guts spilled out like an exploded balloon

of blood and entrails.

 

Beetles battling on a hill overlooking the Civil War.

 

Male dolphins charging each other

with death in their eyes for a female mate.

 

Female butterflies zigzagging in the air

to confuse the male of her gender.

 

Puppies exposing fangs

over a pink ball.

 

Male squirrels biting off another male’s scrotum

during mating season.

 

A Spanish Bull, a rhino, a zebra,

a Cape Buffalo, a Bull Elephant,

all of these plant eating animals

charging or freaking out

with the rage

of a lion reincarnated as a bush

unable to move its legs.

 

The Triceratops dinosaur

eating branches and leaves

with teeth like scissors

and three horns on its face

with a muscled-four-legged-lizard-lion-body

weighing four tons

that could charge a T-Rex

with the confidence

of a spider pouncing on a fly in his web.

 

A sea snail fatal to man.

 

The all powerful universe with all those impossible stars and swirling space clouds

an empty horizon of gravity growing

in absolute darkness

without meaning known to man.

 

Earthquakes destroying unholy shopping malls

yet killing an innocent child

riding his tricycle

down a suburban sidewalk.

 

Nature is a godly face

made of flowers and snakes

and bones and clouds

and pebbles and mites

and fruit flies under the microscope

with blood and rain

and hurricanes and sunshine

glowing all around it.

 

It has no judgment and does not play favorites.

It’s calm now, that face.

 

But when the lightning strikes

or the monsoon hits

or the tidal waves rolls

then the lady bug’s origin

becomes known

and the human body is unveiled

from an X-Ray done by goblins

exposing skeleton arms and feet

and hands and coyote ribs and whale hearts

and the nerve endings of a fly.

 

When the rabbit eats its own poop

and thumps and squeals

when it knows a wolf is near

then this face of nature

explodes with fangs and claws

and an expression

that mimics

the demon that terrifies

the child trapped in your soul.

 

It looks at you, this Egyptian

Godly face with the immortal eyes

of a sunset.

 

Bow

and move on

is all I can suggest.

 

Bide yourself some time in the shade

and feel the breeze on a scolding, hot day.

 

Eventually

it’ll be your time,

and you’ll have to face the edge of the void.

 

But for now just remember, while your

listening to the trickling ripples bump against

a sailboat’s hull, both angels and devils exist

in this paradise of hell.

It’s just a fact of life:

just like a dormant volcano on a summer day

gurgling beneath the eardrum

while bathing beauties are lying about

in the sand or when volleyball players

with sweaty muscles

are jumping for that white ball

that lands

at the giant, red-clawed-feet

of Satan.