the giant of illinois
died of a blister on his toe
after walking all day through the first winter's snow
throwing bits of stale bread
to the last speckled dove
he never even felt his shoe filling up with blood
delirious with pain, his bedroom walls began to glow
he felt himself floating up through falling snow
and the sky was a woman's arms

a boy with a club foot
had sat next to him in school
once upon a summer's day, they went wandering through the woods
they spotted a sleeping swan
on the banks of a muddy stream
and they stormed it with rocks until it collapsed in the reeds
they laid out on the green lawn, full of chocolate and lemonade
but underneath it all, the giant was afraid
because the sky was a woman's arms