Platypus

Tug off your gloves
so I can kiss and kiss and kiss

and kiss the back of your hand 

until it is slick with slobber, then slide my tongue 
between your fingers chewing on the cuff 
of your sleeve my eyes wobble toward you, 
their whites almost blue the veins

in my wrists throb with the thought

of your teeth I am cutting a window 
in your belly peeling back the skin to form 
a pouch so you can carry me around 
I am not a bird but I leave birdlike tracks across 
your powdered forehead droppings I am prying up

the nails with my beak pulling back the boards to see

what’s been buried there I climb

grab you by the scruff and drag

your pelt to the door stuff it

under sure it's good and tight I squeeze

every gushing geyser has its own

story name resumé I pry

open the mouth of every wild 
beast no matter how fierce no matter 
how small or extinct I put my fearless 
head into the mouth of the frog 
the stoat the shrew the hairs

on the top of my scalp tickle the tonsils

of foxes clog the throats of grouse my tongue

pummels your uvula like a fist knocking 
a punching bag you try to extricate yourself 
from between my lips stuff yourself back 
into your gloves the ones that no longer fit.