As frogs melt, I lichen
Myself a swamp dweller,
Of striped jaw and okra claw,
And ironware afire.
Wares of mollusk, steamed at dusk,
Pouch of eyes and vials of drool,
Aflame and bullied, duck’s egg oiled,
Poured into the iron double.
Double I’ll wait on my folded chair,
The path a toil, my fee a trouble,
Your haint blue porch—
That’s a trinket! I’ll sell
This gilded time,
Bubbling gumbo of eel and paste,
To you the horse,
Gifted carrot, rum, and the lash.