Cricket Whisky

I have four hands, some days.

And no fingers with sleek nails.

I have tinfoil caps in my teeth

that scatter like lightening when I eat.

Once I was a man, covered completely in fur

 A bear, sure enough.

They called me 'werewolf', and I learned to spit 

 tobacco at their feet.

Everyone in the old country had webbed toes.

Spread them like your tattered flag

You know the one--

 from china town, just after new year

And how you collected paper lanterns, and when you ran out of cups--

                               used them for beer.

You are drinking crickets by the bottle. Nearby they're doing fish shots.

Now I have brown breasts

Cider-blurry breath

                                             And a hole

                                            cut out of my stomach 

so scientists can see the salamander there,

swimming against his own disintegrating skin.