How To Handle Fiction

What does a smile mean to the stones,
to the troglodytes, to the man who has everything
except Raquel Welch’s womanhood?

Artemio fights off a caveman,
pulls another by the hair,
clubs another one to death.

Raquel befriends a pterodactyl,
because what charms a man
will also charm a creature.

What plans we have
reveal themselves on the wall,
a saber-tooth, a trilobite

snag in our nets of spleen.
An exclamation in Raquel
floats on the surface in ruins,

her outfit torn apart by lust.
The win can come
from other centuries.

Artemio sees his reflection
in the still sea,
salt coating the pyramids,

each wall made up of blocks
which father other blocks.
Raquel touches his reflected shoulder.

The jellyfish and angel fish, startled,
scatter from the pier
as an ancient tennis ball washes ashore.